Bab El Fetouh is one of the gates of Old Cairo. It was built in 1087, during the time of the Fatimid Caliphate, by the military commander Jawhar Al-Siqilli, and then renovated by the vizier Badr Al-Jamali. The gate consists of two circular towers that are connected together by a wall, and below that wall is the gate’s entrance door, which has on its top an arched wall with Islamic carvings on it. Bab El Fetouh is connected from its towers by a wall to the other gate of Bab El Nasr, and is also connected to it on the lower level via walkable passages.

This gate, which is located on the entrance of Al Muizz street, has several claims to the origin of its naming. One claim says that it was named El-Fetouh (which means “ the conquers” in arabic) because the fighting troops used to go out to battles from it. Another stronger claim says that the name of this gate, along with the names of three other Cairo gates (namely Bab El Mahrouq, Bab El Hadid and Bab Khokha), comes from the Moroccan city of Fes, which has gates named with these same names, and that the gates in Cairo were named with the same names as Fes because it was intended for Cairo to be an intellectual and educational centre like Fes.