IN CAIRO, A PARK BECOMES AN OASIS</I> - 2005-02-06

CAIRO'S historic Islamic quarter, a maze of congested, rubble-strewn streets smelling of car fumes and uncollected trash, is being made over with the opening last fall of a 74-acre park and continuing efforts to restore some of the area's many monuments and noteworthy buildings. The $30 million project, which began about 10 years ago, has been undertaken by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, a Geneva-based organization focusing on the revitalization of cities in the Muslim world. The hope is that it will act as a catalyst for tourism and urban renewal in a neglected area more than 1,000 years old that boasts a rich concentration of Islamic architecture.