This is a unique picture, presumably from 1887 (according to the album description). It depicts people, the bridge over the long-forgotten Bulaq (Isma‘iliyya) canal, and the first Cairo train station ( ): the end of the railway between Alexandria and Cairo built by the British company Robert Stephenson & Co. The train station’s full history is yet to be written. Edwin C. Baines resident engineer designed the first building in 1856 near the place of Bab al-Hadid (one of the ancient, demolished gates of medieval Cairo) and renewed it in the 1860s; it was the first public building to receive gas lighting in 1867. According to some, it burned down in 1882 during the ‘Urabi revolution (others write that the flames destroyed only some storage buildings), and was demolished in 1891 and built anew in the next year. Once the Suez line was complete in 1858, too, the station of Cairo connected the Indian Ocean traffic with the Mediterranean until 1869 (when the Suez Canal opened). The station had also a local urban impact: it connected Shubra, the Bulaq port, and the Azbakiyya neighborhood and caused immense changes in the urban landscape in all aspects. From the moment of its construction, this was the major entry point of all types of visitors: merchants, peasants, tourists, and soldiers to Cairo. Its environment also served as a major technological center, army garrison, and coal station at the time of this picture. The neo-Mamluk building erected in 1892 stands (after many reconstructions) until today and even served as the location of a famous Egyptian movie (Y. Chahine: Bab al-Hadid, 1958). (Literature: Illustrated London News, 16 August 1856, pp. 179-180; ‘Ali Mubarak, Al-Khitat, 7: 89-93; Zaki, Mawsu’ Madinat al-Qahira, 262; Abu-Lughod, “The Tale of Two Cities;” Barak, On Time, Chapter Two; Mestyan, “Music and Power;” Prestel, “Hierarchies of Happiness;” Gordon, “Broken Heart of the City;” Fahmy, “New Look;” official site. ) (A.M.)
Cairo Railway Station, 1856 (Illustrated London News, 16 August 1856, p. 179)
Detail from Grand Bey’s map, 1874.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.