VULNERABILITY OF HISTORICAL MINARETS; INVESTIGATION OF THEIR SEISMIC ASSESSMENT & RETROFITTING

Historical monuments are the tangible elements of the cultural and artistic legacy of mankind. Despite the mere fact that their safety and preserveness is a collective responsibility of all disciplines of human professions, structural engineering, prominent among other professions, takes the lead in safeguarding the well being of those materialistic interpretation of history. Minarets are main elements of the art structure of historical and contemporary mosques which constitute the essence of the Islamic art in Egypt. The minaret structural nature of being slim and tall elements, with a cantilever performance, lends them to be most vulnerable when subjected to earthquake demands. This paper investigates the seismic response of historical monuments of Islamic Cairo representing different periods, namely, Abbasid/Tulunid (827 t