Grand Cairo

This view was reproduced as a lithograph by Louis Haghe in Roberts's Egypt & Nubia (1846-49; VoI. III) with the incorrect title, Cairo from the Gate of Citizenib, looking towards the Desert of Suez. The viewpoint is not in fact from Citizenib (modern Sayidah Zaynab) as Roberts thought, but from Tel Zaynum to the south of Cairo. The main monuments in the foreground are, from left to right, the tombs of Fatimah Khatun and of Sultan Khalil (still extant), an unidentified and now destroyed mosque or tomb, and, on the far right, the mosque of Sayidah Nafisah (since rebuilt). In the right background is the Citadel and on the left the Madrasah of Sultan Hassan. The high viewpoint, looking down on the varied contours of the domes and minarets of the city, and the delicate pink glow with which they are suffused, make this one of Roberts's most striking Eastern watercolours.