Restorers dismantle and reconstruct a historic Cairo neighbourhood

By Patrick Werr

CAIRO (Reuters) -Egyptian restorers are reconstructing a dilapidated neighbourhood in Cairo’s historic centre, dismantling houses and then rebuilding them with materials from the old structures in a model they hope can be applied to other districts.

The Darb al-Labbana neighbourhood is nestled on a slope directly under Cairo’s more than eight-century-old citadel, a prominent landmark built by Muslim general Saladin, and abutting the back of a historic hospital complex. But in recent decades it had become largely uninhabitable.

The street pattern has remained little changed for centuries. The narrow lanes and alleys followed the same paths as they did in a map drawn up by French cartographers during Napoleon Bonaparte’s occupation of Egypt in 1798-1801.

Many of the exist