Founded by ‘Amr ibn Al-‘As, the Muslim conqueror of Egypt, in 641-2 as a hypostyle mosque near his house, the Mosque of ‘Amr ibn Al-‘As was rebuilt and enlarged in 673 during the reign of Mu’awiya, who is said to have added a minaret to each of its four corners. The mosque does not exist in its original form, having undergone numerous additions and restorations through the 20th c.

Despite the fact that the vast majority of its original structure has been rebuilt and replaced, the historical importance of this mosque, as the first symbol of Muslim occupation and the first mosque in Africa, continues to make it a major tourist site. It is located in the district of Old Cairo, Fustat, close to the metro station of Mar Girgis and Coptic Cairo.

The original layout was a simple rectangle 29 meters long by 17 meters wide. It was a low shed with columns made of split palm trunks, stones and mud bricks, covered with a roof of wood and palm fronds. The floor was gravel. Inside the building, the orientation towards Mecca was not noted by a concave niche as would be the case in all later mosques. Instead, four columns were used to indicate the direction of Mecca and were inserted on the qibla wall. It was large enough to provide prayer space for Amr’s army, but had no other ornaments, nor minarets.

Originally a hypostyle mosque, it was doubled in size in 827 with seven aisles built parallel to the qibla wall and defined by arcades on columns; the last column in each row was attached to the wall by a wooden architrave carved with a frieze of a late Hellenistic type. These architraves as well as remains of springing arches can still be seen along the southern wall of the mosque.