Of all the monuments in Cairo's cemeteries, the funerary complex of the Mamluk sultan Qaitbay is the one that stops people in their tracks. The sultan, who ruled Egypt for nearly thirty years in the later fifteenth century, built it between 1472 and 1474 as a combined mosque, tomb, school and fountain, in the desert fringe east of the city that served as the Mamluk burial ground. What makes it famous is the dome, carved from stone in a continuous pattern of stars and arabesques, so delicate that it looks like lace or a woven carpet rather than masonry. It is regarded as the high point of Mamluk architecture.
The Mamluks were a military caste of slave soldiers, mostly of Turkish and Circassian origin, who ruled Egypt and Syria for more than two and a half centuries, and they spent their wealth on grand buildings, often along the edges of the city. The Northern Cemetery, where Qaitbay's complex stands, is a landscape of domes and minarets among streets and modern housing, and people have lived among the tombs for generations. A walk through it is a fascinating, slightly surreal experience, and the stone domes rise out of ordinary neighbourhoods with children playing football beside them.
Riding in this district requires care. Roads are narrow, often unmarked and shared with pedestrians, handcarts and vehicles of all kinds, and the surface is patchy in places. Cairo traffic as a whole is dense, so allow plenty of time and choose quiet hours, early in the morning or on Fridays, when the streets are calmer. The area is not a place to wander alone with expensive equipment, so keep your belongings close, and consider hiring a local guide who can explain the monuments and smooth the way.
Fuel and food are easy to find on the main roads, and small stalls offer tea, sweet pastries and fresh juice. The inside of the mosque is cool and quiet, and the courtyard is a restful place after the noise of the streets. The best light on the dome is in the late afternoon, when the carved stone glows a warm gold. The smell is of dust, old stone and the smoke of the neighbourhood's bakeries. Even if you stay only twenty minutes, the dome stays in the mind.