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Description
The feasibility study and the field investigations for assessing the groundwater conditions in the Al Salih Tala’i Mosque were made possible with funding by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Grant No. 263-0000-G-00-3089-00 and administered by the Egyptian Antiquities Conservation Project (EAP) of the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE). The mosque of al-Salih Tala'i, built in 1160 AD, was founded by Amir Al-Salih Tala'i ibn Ruzzik, who was previously the governor of Ashmunein and served as vizier for two juvenile Fatimid caliphs. The mosque of Salih Al-Tala’i showcases several remarkable features, particularly its unique hanging-like structure. It was built above a row of shops, resulting in the formation of trenches surrounding the mosque on all sides.These trenches extend to two meters beneath the street level (Behrens-Abouseif, 1989: 76). For a considerable amount of time, these trenches were inundated with groundwater, jeopardizing the stability of the walls of Al-Salih Tala'i mosque, leading to the closure and submersion of the shops, the accumulation of garbage in the trenches, and the deterioration of the stone facing of the trenches. The rising damp in the mosque's walls had not only negatively affected its ancient masonry architecture and some of its unique architectural elements, but also it had led to the deterioration of one of its most renowned artifacts which is its Minbar that dates back to the Mamluk dynasty and is known to be the second earliest minbar after the one situated in the mosque of Ibn Tulun. Behrens-Abouseif, D. (1989). Islamic architecture in Cairo : an introduction (2nd Impression). E.J. Brill.
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