Sabil of Muhammad Ali Pash - Cairo
Introduction
Sabil of Muhammad Ali Pasha in Cairo is a public fountain built in 1820. It offered free drinking water to public when water supply in private houses wasn’t available in those days. This building is very unique and it is one of the first in Cairo which was built on the Ottoman architectural style. The gilded window grills, the motifs of the painted carvings on wood and bronze door were one of many fine examples of the Ottoman building style.
A glass inside the building shows the cistern below which was used to store the water, brought from the River Nile. The cistern below the sabil is only accessible by a wooden staircase. It had a very small entrance with steep wooden stairs which then were converted into the spiral staircase.
The name of the sabil comes from the ruler of Egypt at that time, Muhammad Ali Pasha. He was an Ottoman governor of Egypt but later he declared himself independent from the government in Istanbul. Muhammad Ali ordered the construction of this building to commemorate the his son, Tusun, who died of plague at the age of 22.
There is a collection of few photos on display to show the renovation work which was carried out in 1998. A school (kuttab) was built on the first floor of the building and it remained functional till 1992.
