Casting Mamluk Architecture

I work as a researcher campaigning to save historic Cairo. Plaster casts like this allow us to study important architectural details up close and preserve the city’s heritage from loot and destruction.

The cast you can see was made by archaeologist Stanley Lane-Pool in 1883. It replicates an ornamental rosette carved in a ‘wikala’ (building complex) constructed for Mamluk Sultan al-Ashraf Qaytbay in 1477. The cast shows us the kind of floral designs that were popular during the Mamluk Dynasty (1250–1517) in Cairo.

Written by: Omniya Abdel Barr, Barakat Trust Research Fellow
Published: May 2025

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