The Mosque complex of Sultan Qala'un was built along the Shari' el-Muizz in 1284 by Sultan el-Mansur Qala'um. It comprises a mosque, madrasa, a mausoleum and a muristan (which was replaced by a modern hospital in the 1920s). The complex is the earliest example of a new Syrian style of those times, and displays typical Mameluke architecture. Xavier Pascal Coste (26 November 1787, Marseille - 8 February 1879) was a French architect. His father was one of the leading joiners in Marseille. Showing intellectual and artistic promise, Pascal began his studies in the studio of Penchaud, architect of the département and the municipalité. In 1814, he was received into the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. His time in Paris was a pivotal one in his life - there he met the geographer Edme François Jomard, who put him in touch with the viceroy of Egypt, Mehmet Ali, who took Coste on as his architect in 1817. In 1825 Coste returned to France with an impressive series of drawings of the architecture of