Bayt Al-Suhaymi

An Ottoman merchant’s house — a hidden world of courtyards and mashrabiya behind a plain old lane.

Built in 1648 and enlarged over the next century, Bayt al-Suhaymi is the finest surviving example of the old Cairene house. From a modest door on Darb al-Asfar it opens into a green courtyard ringed by rooms that turn their backs on the noisy street: cool stone below for summer, carved wooden mashrabiya screens above so the women of the house could watch without being seen.