Historic site · Egypt
Rawda Island Nilometer
مقياس النيل بالروضة
A ninth-century Abbasid flood gauge at Rawda Island's southern tip: a stone well with a marked marble column and spiral stair.
Where it is
30.0069, 31.2250
Why go
Commissioned under the Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil in 861, this structure measured the Nile flood, which in turn set irrigation work and tax levels. Visitors look down into a stone-lined well where an octagonal marble column carries the measuring marks, with Qur'anic inscriptions about water and plenty carved into the walls and a stair spiralling to the bottom. The Ministry describes it as the oldest post-conquest building in Egypt surviving in its original form. Later dynasties restored it, and medieval sultans attended the flood festival held here.
Near Rawda Island Nilometer
Museum
Umm Kulthum Museum
A Rawda Island museum beside the Nilometer devoted to the singer Umm Kulthum, with her belongings, manuscripts, recordings and a film hall.
0 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Church
Hanging Church (Church of the Virgin Mary)
Old Cairo's Church of the Virgin Mary, raised over a gate of the Roman Babylon fortress and known for its icons and marble pulpit.
1 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Church
Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus (Abu Serga)
An Old Cairo basilica church associated with the Holy Family's journey through Egypt.
1 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Museum
Coptic Museum
An Old Cairo museum tracing Coptic art through manuscripts, icons, woodwork and church decoration.
1 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ