Al-Azhar Mosque

World's oldest university, founded 970 AD, and active mosque

Al-Azhar is simultaneously one of Cairo's most beautiful medieval mosques and the world's oldest university in continuous operation. Founded in 970 CE by the Fatimid dynasty, it has been the centre of Sunni Islamic scholarship for over a thousand years, producing jurists, theologians, and scholars whose influence extends across the entire Muslim world.

Non-Muslim visitors are welcome outside prayer times; women will be offered a robe at the entrance. The mosque's interior — its forest of columns, the carved stucco decoration, the layered history of additions from Fatimid, Mamluk, and Ottoman periods — is magnificent. The Al-Azhar Park across the street, built on a medieval rubbish tip, offers excellent views back over the old city and the mosque minarets.

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A story
Al-Azhar University, founded in 970 CE, is the oldest continuously operating university in the world — predating Oxford and Bologna by more than a century. It was established by the Fatimid Caliph al-Muizz li-Din Allah to train scholars in Islamic jurisprudence, and has educated Muslims from across the world ever since. Today it remains one of the most influential religious and educational institutions in the Islamic world, with hundreds of thousands of students enrolled.