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| | Al-Ahram Weekly | Features | Crafting the past (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03) |
 | | A fashionable district, it was dotted with exquisite mosques, attracted stonemasons, carpenters, ironmongers, coppersmiths and lamp-makers, and boasted some of the Islamic world's most impressive examples of the wikala (trade house), the traditional beit (house) and the sabil-kuttab (a Quranic school with a water fountain for the benefit of passers-by). |
 | | Disconnected from Khan Al-Khalili, which monopolises tourism in the area, Al-Darb Al-Ahmar fell into disrepair; it came to resemble a slum, with ramshackle living quarters strewn with rubbish, its inhabitants suffering low income level, its craftsmanship more or less extinct. |
 | | According to the Agha Khan General-Manager Mohamed El-Mikawi, this holistic process "forces us to consider how best to connect heritage with the opportunities and demands of modern life". |
| weekly.ahram.org.eg /2005/754/fe1.htm (907 words) |
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