 Work stopped around 1880 due to technical problems and a shortage of funds.A quarter of a century later, in 1906, Khedive Abbas II Hilmi entrusted Max Herz with the completion of the gigantic edifice opposite the grandiose mosque of Sultan Hasan (757-764/1356-1362).As far as possible, Herz strove to follow the ideas of the architect, to whom he had been connected by personal ties too, but in many cases he had to rely upon his own expertise and invention because the original plans were not extant and in many cases the concepts of the architect were not known.