Bab El Nasr is a fortified gate in the walls of Old Cairo. It lies to
the south of Bab El Fetouh. Like Bab El Fetouh, Bab El Nasr was built by the
commander Jawhar
Al-Siqilli and later renovated by the vizier Badr Al-Jamali, who
renamed it to “Bab El Ezz” but the locals kept calling it by its old name,
which is the one in use today. The gate lies between two rectangular towers and
below a semi-circular arched wall, which is part of the wall connecting the two
towers. Bab El Nasr is known for its decorative shapes on both of its towers
and its frieze which surrounds the gates’s embrasure (an embrasure is a narrow
opening that allows for firing arrows from behind a wall while not being
exposed) and extends to surround the flanking towers.
The naming of this gate, which means “the gate of victory”, goes back
to the time when it was at several times the entrance point of victorious
troops coming back to their bases from war. It is said also that this gate is
where the Sultan of Egypt Al-Zahir Baibars entered Cairo for the first time in
his life.