The water aqueducts

Al-Qanatir is a type of bridge that was closely linked to the streets in Cairo during the nineteenth century A.D. and before, and through them, it is possible to pass from one street to another or from one neighbourhood to another.

If the watercourses interrupted that, and the two main streams in Cairo and the Nile were the Egyptian Gulf (the Commander of the Faithful) and the Nasserite Gulf. The gentleness of their air, the beauty of their scenery, and the spaciousness of the orchards surrounding them greatly impacted the crowding of buildings around them, which was reflected in the necessity of building and constructing barrages on these sewers, starting from the Umayyad era. Hence, there were many arches on this bay.

As for Jomar in describing Cairo: he mentioned that there is no important note regarding the arches built on the bays of Cairo: they all have one or two Gothic arches, narrow and very high walls. The expedition scholars documented twenty-one arches based on maps, nine of which are outside the city.

Gulf mouth aqueducts:

History of Forum Al Khaleej Watering:

Al-Nasir Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi wanted to secure his emerging state after he eliminated the Caliphate of the Fatimids. The area at that time was in danger of the Crusader invasion, which began to reveal from its attacks on the Islamic East since the late Fatimid era, it was natural for Salah al-Din to think of establishing a fortress that would protect him from dangers with the work of a great wall surrounding Cairo and Fustat, and one of the most important elements of life, if Salah’s castle was exposed The debt to the siege, is water, so Salah al-Din dug a well in the Citadel known as Joseph’s Well. Still, its water was not sufficient for the needs of the residents of the Citadel, and when I wanted to deepen the well to increase the water, its salinity increased. Pottery to reach the bottom of the mountain castle. Given the importance of watering in bringing water to the castle, the rulers paid great attention to it throughout the ages and worked to preserve it and purify the transport method.

Throughout the ages, great events have been dealt with this watering, including restoration, addition and demolition overtime periods starting from the Ayyubid era until the modern era, and the transfer of the location of the watering socket from one place to another with the diversity of irrigation directions from that outlet to the point of its meeting with the remains of the Saladin Wall that was used As watering at the Al-Atamsheh area.

Watering before the era of Al-Nasir Muhammad:

This stage began since Salah El-Din embarked on implementing his project to build the Citadel of the Mountain, surrounded the country with a wall extending from Cairo Al-Muizz to Al-Fustat, and used the wall to transport water from the Nile to the Citadel. After the death of his just father, he proceeded to complete the project by completing the incomplete building of the castle and the walls.

Al-Qalqashandi, quoting from Muhyi al-Din ibn Abd al-Zahir, mentioned that al-Malik al-Kamil ibn al-Adil built the square under the castle when he lived in it. The water-wheelers made stretchers from the Nile to him, and Umar was beside him, filled ponds for his watering, then stopped during his days for a while, then his al-Adil son took care of him. Najm al-Din Ayyub and renewed his waterwheel when its order faded. The square was demolished in (650 AH – 651 AH / 1252 AD – 1253 AD) during the Turkmen al-Muizz Aibak, and the waterways and barricades’ demolition their traces were spared. The square remained until the age of Sultan Al-Malik Al-Nasir Muhammad bin Qalawun.

Al-Malik al-Kamil relied on this wall to transport water to the field he built in 611 AH under the castle to irrigate the field’s crops and to use the water for drinking, as the water brought from Yusuf’s well in the castle was used by the castle’s residents for everything except drinking because it was somewhat salinity.

The water was raised from the Nile at the barrages of Bani Wael in Fustat, where the wall of Salah al-Din was located so that the water flowed in the wall to the Citadel.

The remains of the Saladin Wall were revealed in the Fustat excavations, through which the mandate of the Wall of Salah al-Din appeared to the trace of the Prophet, where the shore of the Nile was.

In the Mamluk era, al-Zahir Baybars established a factory under the castle. Prince Izz al-Din al-Afram was the first to establish an outlet to transfer water from the new water outlet to the wall, which he built with the contracts due to the movement of the Nile to the west, which necessitated the work of a new extension related to the wall, which became water coming through an outlet and form contracts.

Watering in the era of Al-Nasir Muhammad:

Al-Nasir Muhammad bin Qalawun paid great attention to water facilities and construction, so in the year (713 AH – 1313 AD), he built the field under the castle and dug wells on which the royal brooks rode. Al-Nasir Muhammad built a stretcher waterwheel that lifted water from the factory Baybars built below the castle, next to Taqi al-Din Rajab, to the stable well.

Based on this, Al-Nasir Muhammad’s watering works began by constructing four canals to strengthen the water connecting to the field and the cow’s house and restore the wall.

In the year (718 A.H. – 1318 A.D.) Al-Nasir Muhammad bin Qalawun set out to build an irrigation system from the Nile to the Castle of the Mountain from decades of lobe stone.

And he made for her portable carriages in a few places

Its origin is from the monitoring wall

In the year 728 AH / 1327 AD, al-Nasir Muhammad decided that the water would flow under the castle with a length of 42,000 reeds, provided that he would excavate on the Sultan’s army. The time for completing this project was estimated at ten years, and he dismissed it.

In the year 741 AH / 1340 AD, the Sultan wanted to increase the water for the mountain castle for the third time through the channel on the wall. He inspected the watering system, so he rode with the engineers to its outlet well, from which the water was raised to the wall, and agreed to dig a small bay that would come out of the stream to the observation wall and dig ten wells in the wall. The drivers ride on it to carry the water and transport it to the original course on the fence, and he dies before completing the project.

Sami Nawar believes that the wall has three water intakes, two directly on the Nile River, the first built by Al-Afram, the second built by Al-Nasir Muhammad in 718 AH / 1318 AD the third at the monitoring wall. Al-Nasir died before its completion.

Sultan Barquq was the first of the Circassian sultans to renovate its architecture after he built a great cistern in the Citadel, which is filled every year during the flood from the water transferred to the water Citadel from the waterways with stretchers.

Al-Maqrizi mentioned that in the year 812 AH / 1409 AD, Prince Yalbugha al-Salmi took the stones that had been erected by al-Nasir Muhammad in the wall at the surface of the cliff of the observation wall and used them in the restoration of the arches that carry water to the castle, which are the watering arcades of al-Nasir Muhammad.

C- Watering in the era of Ghouri:

Sultan Al-Ghouri demolished the watering outlet of Al-Nasir Muhammad and built a new outlet for its watering, which starts from Mawridat Halfa (Fam Al-Khaleej now) to the field below the Castle of the Mountain after it was merged with the Wall of Salah al-Din, in the period from 912 AH / 914 AH (1506/1508 AD)

Ibn Iyas mentioned that Sultan Al-Ghouri abolished the watering of Al-Nasir Muhammad and established a new one

Attributed to Dr Souad Maher watering the mouth of the Gulf belongs to Sultan Al-Ghouri and not to Al-Nasir Muhammad, based on the fact that the level of irrigation is higher than the wall of Salah al-Din, which necessitated the construction of other contracts above the wall of Salah al-Din at the point where the contracts meet with the fence at the path of al-Wasiya, and the size of the stones of the watering courses built into the wall is 36 cm The same size of stones as most of the watering parts, and the same course as the slab of Sultan al-Ghuri.

The watering is known as the seven streams, for there were six streams to raise the water to the surface of the outlet tower. A seventh stream was used if the Nile was low to raise the water that did not enter the basin at the bottom of the outlet tower, and if the water was high, it entered the lower basin directly.