The Guardian Features Egypt on List of Spectacular Virtual Tours

Remember back in March 2020 when the Coronavirus pandemic hit, closing down every office and school and gym and border and forcing us to retreat to the safety of our homes, and we released like a hundred articles about virtual tours to help you expand your mind beyond the four walls of your room? Well it's March 2021 and for many of us not a single thing has changed. Least of all for UK-based publication The Guardian, which has recently released a list of the best buildings to virtually visit - and an Egyptian icon has made it to the top.

The Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Barquq was built in 1386 in what is now Old Cairo, but a little over six hundred years ago it was a centre of religious education and thought in the busiest part of the capital. Behind its bronze doors and marble mosaics, people prayed at the mosque, learned in the madrasas, and meditated in the Sufi monasteries otherwise known as khanqah. Beneath the complex's prominent dome - flanked by towering minarets - is the mausoleum, where Sultan Barquq's father is buried.

The Guardian recommends visiting the Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Barquq through /my.matterport.com/, and while that's the only Egyptian entry formally included on the list, they gave a shout-out to other virtual tours that have recently been made available across the country, like the tomb of Queen Meresankh III. The rest of the Guardian's list includes Paris's Palace of Versailles, Casa Batlló in Barcelona, Golestan Palace in Iran, and the Castle in Love with the Wind in Bulgaria which looks exactly as elaborate and poetic as its name suggests.