Description
The good medieval necropolis of Cairo, comprising two main areas together stretching twelve kilometers north to south, constitutes an incredible feature of the town’s urban landscape. With monumental and smaller-scale mausolea dating from all eras since early medieval times, and boasting one of the most finest examples of Mamluk architecture not just within the city but within the region, the necropolis is an unparalleled—and until now in large part undocumented—architectural treasure trove.
In Architecture for the Dead, architect Galila El Kadi and photographer Alain Bonnamy have produced a comprehensive and visually stunning survey of all areas of the necropolis. Through detailed and painstaking research and remarkable photography, in text, maps, plans, and pictures, they describe and illustrate the astonishing number of architectural styles, from Mamluk to neo-Mamluk by the use of baroque and neo-pharaonic, from the grandest stone buildings with their decorative domes and minarets to the humblest—but elaborately decorated—wooden structures. The book also documents the brand new settlement of the necropolis by families creating a space for the living in and some of the tombs and architecture for the dead.