The Fatimid Cairo was built one thousand ago by El Moez Li-Dinellah to be the capital of Islamic Egypt. It has many historic Islamic buildings and monuments and it is a very attractive area for tourists and traders as they can find the most famous antique markets in Khan El Khalily and many other places. The main route in the area is El Azhar street which passing through it. The ministry of transport built a two level steel bridge along the street to solve the problems of transport and traffic congestion in seventies of the last century. The bridge and the very crowded street caused a bad appearance of the historic buildings in addition to the high rate of energy lost in transport, air and noise pollutions which affect badly on the residents and tourists. To avoid these negative impacts, the ministry of transport and National Authority for tunnels constructed two road tunnels under El Azhar street. This paper contains the main features of the transportation means in the Fatimid Cairo before and after building of the tunnels. Comparisons and analysis will be carried to clarify the advantages of the tunnels and their positive impact on saving energy and reducing rates of air and noise pollutions as the result of the higher ventilation chimneys and preventing on surface traffic. |
