Bayt Al-Suhaymi ("House of Suhaymi") is a Traditional

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

ian

Islamic Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the mai ...

themed house and

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

. It was originally built in 1648 by Abdel Wahab el Tablawy along the Darb al-Asfar, a very prestigious and expensive part of

Islamic Cairo Islamic Cairo ( ar, قاهرة المعز, lit= Al-Mu'izz's Cairo), also called Historic Cairo or Medieval Cairo, refers generically to the historic areas of Cairo, Egypt, that existed before the city's modern expansion during the 19th and 20th ce ...

. In 1796 it was purchased by Sheikh Ahmed as-Suhaymi whose family held it for several subsequent generations. The Sheikh greatly extended the house from its original through incorporating neighbouring houses into its structure. The house is built around a

sahn A ''sahn'' ( ar, صَحْن, '), is a courtyard in Islamic architecture, especially the formal courtyard of a mosque. Most traditional mosques have a large central ''sahn'', which is surrounded by a ''Riwaq (arcade), riwaq'' or arcade (architect ...

in the centre of which there is a small garden with plants and palm trees. From here several of the fine

mashrabiya A ''mashrabiya'' or ''mashrabiyya'' ( ar, مشربية) is an architectural element which is characteristic of traditional architecture in the Islamic world and beyond. It is a type of projecting oriel window enclosed with carved wood latticew ...

windows in the house can be seen. Today the house is a museum which foreign visitors can tour for 35 Egyptian pounds (15 for students). Much of the marble floor work, wooden furniture, and ceiling decor is still intact. Restoration took place after the earthquake of 1992. File:Suhaymi Screen.jpg, Old 17th-century Egyptian wealthy house in Old Cairo. File:GD-EG-Caire-Suhaymi033.JPG, File:GD-EG-Caire-Suhaymi023.JPG, File:GD-EG-Caire-Suhaymi008.JPG, File:Bayt Al-Suhaymi.jpg,

References

External links

egyptianmuseums: Bayt Al-Suhaymi

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20111117041728/http://archnet.org/library/sites/one-site.jsp?site_id=3332 Manzil al-Suhaymi (Bayt Al-Suhaymi)on archnet.org Museums in Cairo History museums in Egypt Historic house museums in Egypt Houses in Egypt Medieval Cairo {{Egypt-museum-stub