“Sinnari House”... Description of Egypt (Video)

Here Egypt was described. Within the walls of a house located in its most ancient neighborhood, scholars gathered to write down the oldest civilization known to history. They gather, teach, and spread their knowledge from behind this house.

“Al-Sinnari House” was built more than two hundred years ago, by the reader of “Al-Kaf wa Al-Wada’,” which became one of the most important archaeological houses in the eighteenth century.

From the "Minj" neighborhood inside the Nasiriyah neighborhood in Sayyida Zeinab, Ibrahim Katkhuda Al-Sinnari built in 1794 the "Sinnari House". The origin of "Katkhoda" goes back to the city of Sennar in Sudan, which was nicknamed Al-Sinnari after it.

Ibrahim came to Egypt at the age of eight. He worked as a real estate guard in the city of Mansoura and was good at reading “The Palm and the Farewell.” Through it, he was able to get closer to the rulers by communicating with their wives, to whom he used to read “palms.”

Ibrahim Al-Sinnari's status rose day after day until he earned the title of "Katkhuda", and he began to think about building his own house, which he used as his headquarters in the Sayyida Zeinab neighborhood.

The construction of the house began in 1784 and was completed in 1794. Ibrahim stays in the house a lot. The French expedition came to Egypt, and chose the house among three houses confiscated from the French campaign to accommodate the scientists and artists of the expedition in it, led by Gaspard Monge, the leader of the scientific mission, and from here it begins. A new trip to Al-Sinnari House with the campaign’s scientists

The scientists remained residing in this house throughout the period of the campaign, and they established many scientific projects, the most important of which was writing the book “Description of Egypt,” which is considered the greatest series covering all aspects of Egyptian life. The Rosetta Stone was also moved there when it was discovered for the scientific mission to uncover it.

After the departure of the French campaign, the house remained closed until 1916, until a French billionaire, Gayaradon, came. He was fond of collecting Napoleon’s belongings, so he rented the house and created a museum for Napoleon’s belongings.

Then the house was closed again until “Heritage Models Only” used it to accommodate craftsmen from the beginning of the fifties until the seventies.

The house was restored for the first time in 1996 by the Egyptian mission and the French mission. They used the “Description of Egypt” encyclopedia while restoring the house to restore its appearance to how it was in the past.

Haitham Mohib, director of Al-Sinnari House, says: “His Alexandria office chose the house for its cultural and scientific importance in 2010, but work on it actually began in 2012.”

Haitham added that the house has turned into a cultural center in which various activities are held, including workshops, exhibitions, seminars, and many events for free.