Designed in the Fatimid style, the Al Hakim Mosque was originally built outside Cairo prior to being incorporated into the city’s walls in 1087. It was then used as a prison, stables, a school, and a fortress before restoration in the 1980s saw it converted back into a working mosque. The top attractions are its courtyard, minarets—Cairo’s oldest—and gateway, an echo of ancient Egyptian temple pylons.
There are two main ways to experience the Al Hakim Mosque: to visit independently or book a private tour that features the mosque as part of a roundup of old Cairo or all Cairo. First-time visitors, for instance, might choose a full-day tour that covers the pyramids, Egyptian Museum, and even outlying Saqqara before delving into Islamic Cairo’s mosques, gates, and El-Moez Street, the home of the Al Hakim Mosque. Visitors changing flights at Cairo airport, meanwhile, can see the mosque on a private layover tour.