AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Tucked into the Mamluk quarter of al-Darb al-Ahmar between Bab Zuweila and the Citadel, the Aqsunqur Mosque is one of Cairo's best-kept treasures—and the city's true "Blue Mosque." Begun in 1346-47 by the emir Shams al-Din Aqsunqur, a son-in-law of the great sultan al-Nasir Muhammad, the building layers three eras of patronage into a single, beautifully irregular plan, capped in the 17th century by the dazzling blue-and-green Iznik tiles that give it its nickname.↗↗↗
What makes it special for a visitor is the contrast: a plain, fortress-like medieval shell on a busy old street, opened onto a cool arcaded courtyard and, in the prayer hall, a wall of cobalt tiles that feels almost out of place in the Egyptian sun—hence the well-earned comparison to Istanbul. It is an active mosque, restored by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and the World Monuments Fund and reopened to the public in 2015.↗↗
A Mosque, a Mausoleum, and a Street
The story begins before the mosque itself. In 1341 a small domed mausoleum went up on Bab al-Wazir Street for the boy-sultan al-Ashraf Kujuk, a son of al-Nasir Muhammad. Years later Aqsunqur—then governor of Tripoli in Syria, and by marriage part of the sultan's household—built his open, arcaded mosque around this tomb rather than moving it. The result is the quirky, asymmetrical footprint that catches the eye from outside: one of very few Cairene mausoleums aligned to the street instead of to Mecca, its exterior clad in bands of polychrome stone.
