Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê¼´Ê±¿ª½±

Nilometer

Cairo


At the very southern tip of Roda, inside the Monastirli Palace compound, the Nilometer was constructed in AD 861. Like others built millennia before, it measured the rise and fall of the river, and thus predicted the fortunes of the annual harvest. The Turkish-style pencil-point dome is a Farouk-era reconstruction of an earlier one wrecked by Napoleon’s troops.

If the water rose to 16 cubits (a cubit is about the length of a forearm), the harvest was likely to be good, inspiring one of the greatest celebrations of the medieval era. Any higher, though, and the flooding could be disastrous, while lower levels presaged hunger. The measuring device, a graduated column, sits below the level of the Nile at the bottom of a flight of precipitous steps, which you can descend right to the bottom. The entrance is on Sharia Al Malek As Salih. You buy your ticket there off the site guard who will then accompany you down the path to the Nilometer building as it's usually kept shut between visits.


Contact

Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê¼´Ê±¿ª½±'s must-see attractions

Nearby Cairo attractions

1. Umm Kulthum Museum & Monastirli Palace

0.04 MILES

Set in a peaceful Nileside garden, Monastirli Palace was built in 1851 for an Ottoman pasha whose family hailed from Monastir, in northern Greece. The…

3. Roman Towers

0.31 MILES

In AD 98 the Roman emperor Trajan enlarged an existing fortress here, called Babylon, likely a corruption of Per-hapi-en-on (Estate of the Nile God at On)…

4. Hanging Church

0.34 MILES

Just south of the Coptic Museum on Sharia Mar Girgis (the main road parallel with the metro), a stone facade inscribed with Coptic and Arabic marks the…

5. Church of St Sergius & Bacchus

0.35 MILES

This is the oldest church inside Coptic Cairo's walls, built in the 11th century with 4th-century pillars. It honours the Roman soldiers Sergius and…

6. Coptic Museum

0.35 MILES

This museum, founded in 1908, houses Coptic art from the earliest days of Christianity in Egypt right through to early Islam. It is a beautiful place, as…

7. Ben Ezra Synagogue

0.37 MILES

Just outside the walls of the Coptic enclave, the 9th-century Ben Ezra Synagogue occupies the shell of a 4th-century Christian church. Tradition marks…

8. Church of St Barbara

0.38 MILES

At the corner past Abu Sarga, the Church of St Barbara is dedicated to a martyr who was beaten to death by her father for trying to convert him to…