PM Modi to Begin Two-Day Egypt Tour from Saturday to visit 11th century Al-Hakim Mosque

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to visit the 11th-century Al-Hakim Mosque here during his two-day visit to Egypt beginning on Saturday. PM Modi’s visit to the mosque is scheduled as the first event on the last day of his two-day programme in Egypt’s sprawling capital Cairo.

The Prime Minister will spend nearly half an hour at the Al-Hakim Mosque– a historic and prominent mosque in Cairo named after Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah (985-1021), the 16th Fatimid caliph. The mosque was originally built by Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah’s father, Caliph Al-‘Aziz Billah, towards the end of the 10th century, in the year 990, and was later completed by Al-Hakim in the year 1013. The mosque is also known as Al-Anwar, meaning “the Illuminated”, similar in style to the name of the earlier Al-Azhar Mosque founded by the Fatimids. It is the second-largest mosque in the city of Cairo, and the fourth oldest. The mosque is located in the heart of Islamic Cairo, on the east side of al-Mu’izz Street, just south of Bab al-Futuh (one of the northern city gates of Fatimid Cairo).

PM Modi will make a State visit to Egypt on June 24 and 25. Earlier, Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said, “It is worth mentioning here that this will be Prime Minister’s first visit to Egypt and I might also mention that this would be the first official bilateral visit of the Indian Prime Minister to Egypt since 1997.”

PM Modi during his first Egypt tour will also visit Heliopolis War Grave cemetery to pay tribute to the Indian soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice fighting for Egypt during the First World War.