Made from mud-brick and wood, Ibn Tulun Mosque in Sharia Ibn Tulun was built in 879AD, featuring a pointed arch well before Gothic architecture, and decorative inner arcades. The minaret can be ascended by spiral staircase for city views.
The mosque was built by the son of a Turkish slave who later rose through the ranks of the Baghdad Caliphate to become Governor of Egypt. Inspired by Iraqi models, it is a precious example of the classic Abbasid style and is surrounded on three sides by ziyadas or little outer courtyards, separating street life from the sanctity of the mosque.
The walls of these ziyadas are decorated with crenellations, unusually delicate for their time, while the inner arcades boast floral decorations and Kufic (the earliest language of Islam) inscriptions.