جريدة الديار
الجمعة 19 أبريل 2024 09:48 مـ 10 شوال 1445 هـ
بوابة الديار الإليكترونية | جريدة الديار
رئيس مجلس الإدارة أحمد عامررئيس التحريرسيد الضبع

Shalhin Al-Khilouti is an ancient mosque at the foot of the Mokattam plateau

Nearly five centuries ago, specifically in the year 1538 AD, Jamal al-Din Shaheen decided to gift his father, Sheikh Al-Saleh, who knows God Shaheen Al-Khalouti, Sheikh of the Khulutiyya order, a mosque that commemorates his memory after his death. Cairo is from the top of its mountains, that plateau to which his father sought refuge and built a temple for him in it and dug a grave for him in it, and it was a refuge for ascetics and mystics.

Nothing remains of the mosque except for the ruins of its minaret, a dome and some walls. It is more like a castle from it than a mosque built five centuries ago, very similar to those castles described in the tales of A Thousand and One Nights, or one of the ancient Egyptian temples carved into the mountains and plateaus. Reaching it is an adventure. Risky, as access to it requires access to the tombs of "Sidi Omar", and there is a path that ascends you to the top of the mountainside.

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As soon as you set foot on the ground of the Shaheen Al Khalouti Mosque, you will realize that you are in front of a unique architectural style of a mosque that was carved inside the mountain, and in the same way that the Temple of Hatshepsut was established, and inside it you will find many openings and caves, which are called khloat, and it also includes a mausoleum and three tombs, the largest of these The graves belong to Sheikh Shaheen al-Khilooti, ​​and the other two by Jamal al-Din Shaheen and his son Muhammad Shaheen, and there is a dome that can be entered through a door topped by a piece of marble on which the name of its owner was written, and he had four stone columns, and his kiss is occupied by pieces of colored marble and shells, and it is believed that the mosque was located in it. A water well.