The mausoleum of Sultan al-Ashraf Qaitbey is among the most magnificent in Cairo. It is the apex of architectural style locally developed in Cairo when the city was a preeminent economic, political and cultural centre of the Islamic world. The stone dome of the mausoleum is the crowning achievement of the art that epitomises and defines Cairo’s mediaeval architecture. The renowned American scholars Sheila Blair and Jonathan Bloom describe it as “the masterpiece of carved masonry domes, comprising two networks of contrasting arabesque and geometrical interlace perfectly fitted to the decreasing domical surface” and praise its “intricacy of design, refinement of execution, and elegance”. The distinguished British scholar Robert Hillenbrand noted about the dome that “its interlocking networks of stellar and arabesque design synchronize to perfection: a fugue in three dimensions.” About the interior of the tomb chamber, the prominent American Islamic art historian Caroline Williams wrote: “the outside view does not prepare one for the dimensions of the great dome, which seems infinite in its soaring height.”
In August 2022, the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural preservation awarded to ARCHiNOS a grant for full conservation of the mausoleum. This was an extension of the work that ARCHiNOS has been carrying out in the complex of Sultan Qaitbey since 2014, primarily with European Union funding.
The work began in October 2022 with repairs to external stonemasonry and the dome. Close examination revealed that see-through cracks had developed in the dome, probably partly due to the catastrophic earthquake of 1992. The masonry was consolidated. Cleaning revealed original colours with which the architectural details were accented. Subsequently, the interior was thoroughly cleaned and its fabrics consolidated. In the richly decorated mihrab prayer niche, the original colour scheme was revealed from later repaintings, and the original gilding partially reconstructed. Damage from rising damp had affected particularly seriously those parts of the mihrab where the original stone decoration was replicated in plaster in a previous conservation effort. A gilded brass canopy, a gift from the Ottoman Sultan Ahmad I was also conserved, as well as various woodwork and brass pieces.
The conservation of the mausoleum was completed in November 2024.
In the future, it is planned to open the mausoleum to the public independently of the adjacent mosque/madrasa to make it better accessible and more meaningfully presented.
Location: Eastern Cemetery (Desert of the Mamluks) within the ‘City of the Dead’, Cairo
October 2022 – November 2024
Project Director: Agnieszka Dobrowolska
Site management: Mahmud Badawy
Head conservator: Erico Peintner
Documentation team: Jaroslaw Dobrowolski, Hadir Ahmad, Esraa al-Mahdi, Muhammad Esam, X-DIMENSION Company
Funded by:
the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation Fund
