Al Azhar Park, Egypt

The Al-Azhar Park in Egypt is located on a hilly site and surrounded by historic districts of Islamic Cairo. This park has become a popular destination amongst the many visitors to the city. Al- Azhar Park is Located in the heart of the city and offers panoramic view of the surrounding area.

The Al-Azhar Park was made with effort of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture in 1984, on 30 hectare (74 acre) land with the Islamic belief that all are trustees of God's creation and therefore must seek make it a better place than it was before. This endeavor cost around 30 million USD and has since then become a harbinger for case studies to solve the challenges of historic cities.

The western side of AL- Azhar Park in Egypt is the old Fatimid city and its extension Darb Al Ahmarthat has wealth of mosques, madrasas and mausolea. One can find on the South of the park Sultan Hassan Mosque and the Ayyubid Citadel. To the eastern side is the City of the Dead where people live with the cenotaphs.

While clearing the 500-year-old debris for the park several discoveries were also made. Here one may recall the discovery of the 12th century Ayyubid city wall of Cairo built during the reign of Salah el-Din. Stones with hieroglyphic texts some measuring as much as one meter long that was used to construct the Salah el-Din's wall. In order to reach to the wall it became necessary excavate to a depth of 15 meters. Here one would find 1.5-kilometre section of the historic wall, with several towers and battlements well preserved.

The Al- Azhar Park is the largest green area created in Cairo in over a century thus helped checking a trend where the development had paid less attention to the city's once famous parks. In the Al- Azhar Park in Cairo there are 325 varieties of plants and most of them are native grown in the nursery. In the park there are three fresh water reservoirs for the city. Here there are shaded walkways, play area for the children, museum, hill top restaurant and café near the lake.