hosiar_nooraddin

THE CASE OF

AL-FINA'

IN CAIRO

164

1.3.3. The physical layout of the streets and the public open

spaces.

The streets of Cairo had two basic characteristics, narrow,

and a winding, or irregular layout. These two characteristics had

developed in different ways. Occupying

al-fina'

and the

development of different settings in its spaces by the people

were among the more important factors to shape the organic

patterns of the streets (figure 4.7).

However, scholars have described and judged these two

characteristics in different ways. For example, Jomard noted that

222.

"The interior arrangement of the eity has hardly any resemblance to

European cities; not only are its streets and public squares extremely

irregular, but the city is almost entirely composed, with the exception

of a few very long avenues, of extremely short, broken, zig-zag streets

with innumerable dead ends. Each of these off-shoots is closed by a door

that the inhabitants open when they wish; the result is that the

interior of Cairo is very difficult to know as a whole."

Most travel-writings have documented the narrow streets of

Cairo and the variation of their widths. For example, St. John� 3

maintained that:

"..all of (the quarters are) traversed by innumerable streets, or

rather, lanes courts, or alleys, so narrow for the most part (some not

exceeding two feet and a half in width), that they exclude at all hours

the rays of the sun; to effect which more completely, a succession of

palm-mats is thrown across on poles, with narrow apertures here and

there, to admit a certain supply of light."

222

Jomard, E. F.,

Description of Cairo.

pp. 580-581. This section is

translated from French by Abu-Lughud, J., 1971,

Cairo-1001 Years of The City

Victorious,

Princeton University Press, New Jersey. p. 65.

223

St. John, James Augustus, 1845,

Egypt and Nubia,

Chapman and Hall,

London. p. 105.