Al-Azhar Park () is a public park located in qism al-Darb al-Ahmar, in Historic Cairo, Egypt. Among several honors, this park is listed as one of the world's sixty great public spaces by the Project for Public Spaces. The park was created by the Historic Cities Support Programme of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, an entity of the Aga Khan Development Network. The park was developed at a cost in excess of USD $30 million, its funding a grant to Cairo from Aga Khan IV, a descendant of the Fatimid Caliphs of Cairo. The park project, an urbanism initiative, included: the development of the park archeology involving a 12th-century Ayyubid wall historic building rehabilitation (the 14th Century Umm Sultan Shaban Mosque, the 13th century Khayrbek complex, and the Darb Shoughlan School) several quality of life improvement initiatives requiring skills training, area rehabilitation, microfinance, and support in the areas of health and education, among others. The gardens of al-Azhar Park In 1984, Aga Khan IV was visiting Cairo on a conference. From his hotel balcony; Al-Darassa hill () was visible: mounts of wreckage and ruins amassed during 500 years. He decided to intervene and offer that medieval area via the Historic Cities Support Programme the much-needed gift of an oasis in this urban desert. The sum of 30 million dollars was allocated to the project and put in the qualified hand of a local architecture and urbanism office: Sites International. The site posed several technical challenges; half a millennium of debris was at hand. Works of excavation, grading and replacement with appropriate fill began in 1992. "Over 765,000 m3 was taken out of the Park and 160,000 m3 was used as fill elsewhere on site. A further 605,000 m3 was subjected to geotechnical treatment (sieving, washing, etc.) and mixed with 60,000 m3 of special sand and topsoil to enable the site to be covered with a layer of “good” soil from 0.5 to 2.0 meters deep. A total of 1.5 million cubic meters of rubble and soil were moved, which represents over 80,000 truckloads." While the designers grappled with the technical difficulties at hand posed by the terrain and soil the government introduces an additional unexpected constraint at halfway through the process: three cisterns were to be integrated into the terrain to improve the supply of potable water to the city of Cairo. Works had to be interrupted and the