Ablution area in the mosque of Sultan Hassan under a beautiful white dome in Egypt

A space designed not for spectacle — but for pause.

Sketching inside Sultan Hassan always feels like stepping out of time. The mosque overwhelms you with its scale, but this spot — the ablution area — offers a different kind of weight. Not grandeur, but grace.

I sat cross-legged near the fountain, pen in hand, surrounded by echoes and the slow rhythm of footsteps. The geometry here is sacred in its simplicity. It's where people prepare to meet the divine — and somehow, in that process, leave a little bit of the world behind.

I didn’t draw to document — I drew to remember how it felt to be quiet in a city that rarely is.

Before I show you the painting process and the Vlog of that day, I entered Sultan Hassan for the first time, Here is a BTS moment, when I was trying harding to conceal that smile off my face, out of my excitment, exploring this Mosque and enjoying every single detail.

Honoring this day, that my friends Lamia and Gamal, introduced me to my first Sketch-on-Location of an Islamic Architecture,

Now I leave you with a Video of the sketching process of this amazing place, documenting a true serene moment.

This video was an Intro to a very dear and special series I made in 2021 "385 degrees", a series to celebrate Mosques on our National Banknotes, from the 5 -200 EGP.. It's 385, do the math!

You can explore all the stories within the 385 degrees series, on my youtube channel below!