Boulaq ( from "guard, customs post"), is a district of
Cairo
Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...
, in
Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
. It neighbours
Downtown Cairo,
Azbakeya, and the
River Nile
The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the longest river i ...
.
History
The westward shift of the Nile, especially between 1050 and 1350, made land available on its eastern side. There the development of Bulaq began in the 15th century. In this century, under sultan
Barsbay
Al-Ashraf Sayf ad-Dīn Barsbāy () was the ninth Burji dynasty, Burji Mamluk sultan of Egypt from AD 1422 to 1438. He was Circassians, Circassian by birth and a former slave of the first Burji Sultan, Barquq.
Early career
A former slave of the i ...
Bulaq became the main port of Cairo.
Bulaq is a dense indigenous district filled with small-scale workshops of industries such as the
old printing press, metalworking and machine shops, which supported the early stages of building Cairo. It is populated with a mixed working class from all parts of Egypt, who migrated to the city during the 19th century to work on
Muhammad ‘Ali's projects. To the north of the district is located the bulk of the city's newer industrial plants. The history of Bulaq goes back to the Mamluk rule of the fourteenth century when the site was the main port of Cairo filled with several
wikalas, mosques and houses for merchants near the port.
Modern history
The new
Egyptian Museum
The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, commonly known as the Egyptian Museum (, Egyptian Arabic: ) (also called the Cairo Museum), located in Cairo, Egypt, houses the largest collection of Ancient Egypt, Egyptian antiquities in the world. It hou ...
of Antiquities was established at Bulaq in 1858 in a former warehouse, following the foundation of the new Antiquities Department under the direction of
Auguste Mariette
François Auguste Ferdinand Mariette (11 February 182118 January 1881) was a French scholar, archaeologist and Egyptologist, and the founder of the Egyptian Department of Antiquities, the forerunner of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
Earl ...
. The building lay on the bank of the Nile River, and in 1878 it suffered significant damage in a flood. In 1892, the collections were moved to a former royal palace, in the
Giza
Giza (; sometimes spelled ''Gizah, Gizeh, Geeza, Jiza''; , , ' ) is the third-largest city in Egypt by area after Cairo and Alexandria; and fourth-largest city in Africa by population after Kinshasa, Lagos, and Cairo. It is the capital of ...
district of Cairo. They remained there until 1902 when they were moved, for the last time, to the current museum in
Tahrir Square. The Museum's former location is indicated by the continued existence of a 'Maspero Street', named after the second head of the Antiquities Department.
The Royal Carriages Museum was established in Boulaq during the reign of Khedive Ismail. It was originally known as the Department of the Khedive Carriages.
Following the building of the Nile Corniche, with a road running along the river front, the Bulaq area ceased to be a port; it is now home to various organisations, such as the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...
, the
Maspero television building, Ali Baba Movie Theater (dilapidated), and the ''
Al-Ahram'' newspaper.
Education
Schools in Bulaq:
*
International Italian School "Leonardo da Vinci"Home
". International Italian School "Leonardo da Vinci". Retrieved on October 25, 2015. "Address: 26th of July Str. No. 40 - Boulac - Cairo - Egypt"
Address in Arabic
: "العنوان: 40 شارع 26 يوليو - وسط البلد - القاهرة - جمهورية مصر العربية"
* Kalousdian Armenian School
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
*
Districts of Cairo
Districts of Greater Cairo
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