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THE CASE OF
AL-FINA'
IN CAIRO
167
winds during the summer
228
•
St. John
229
maintained that:
".. when, after a long ride in the suburbs or surrounding country, I
have returned to Cairo about the middle of the day nothing used to
appear to me more delightful than to plunge out of the scorching
sunshine into the cool and dusky passages, where a brisk current of air
is generally felt.
Although the narrow and winding streets contributed to
reduce the hot temperature, this was not the main reason to
occupy
al-fina'
and form the irregular streets.
An explanation of occupying
al-fina'
can be related to the
strong social structure which encouraged the people to live in
the same quarter
(ha'rah).
Building new areas out of the built
up area was restricted also because of the existing protected
areas
(harim)
of the farms and buildings located on the edges of
the city
2
�.
These factors increased the demand for new building
sites in the quarters.
As a consequence, people built on any
available vacant land in the quarter (ha'rah), subdivided the
existing houses (vertically and horizontally), subdivided the
plots of the exising properties, and occupied the fina' of the
houses to house the new people and functions.
It is also evident
that the physical expansion out of the city aften occurred when
the existing built up area reached a high density and most of the
available apen lands were built up. At this stage, the new
building development took place on the land adjacent to the
existing built up area. This was the protected land
(harim)
of
the city and its farms. Therefore, in the Ottoman's period, the
living built up area of Cairo was formed as a continuous compact
and clustered structure.
228
Fathy, Hassan, Constancy,
Transposition and Change in the Arab City.
Edited by Brown, L. Carl, 1973, From Medina to Metropolis, The Darwin Press,
Inc., Princeton, New Jersey. p. 322.
229
St. John, James Augustus, 1845,
Egypt and Nubia.
p. 105.
230
See the chapters, the land use, and
al-harim,
in part 2.