 The Khan al-Khalili commercial district developed on the Qasaba's eastern side and, partly because there was no more room to expand along that street, stretched further east towards the Mosque/shrine of al-Hussein and the Mosque of al-Azhar.Even with the removal of the royal residences, however, its symbolic importance endured and it remained one of the most prestigious sites to erect the mosques, mausoleums, madrasas and other monumental buildings commissioned by the sultans and the high elites of the regimes.During the Mamluk period in particular, the street filled up with major architectural monuments, many of which still stand today.