Al-Sharifayn Passageway cuts through the heart of al-Bursa, or Stock Market Exchange district. The district is named for the Stock Exchange built in 1928 in the Art Deco style, designed by renowned French architect George Parcq, who also designed the Sednaoui Department store in Midan al-Khazindar. The land on which the district was built was originally the palace and gardens of Qattawi Pasha, the promoter and financier of the original Bourse (located on al-Bursa al-Gadida Street, between Qasr al-Nil and Tal‘at Harb Streets), as well as the founder of the Helwan Railway and Bab al-Luq covered market. 

Before the Stock Market closed in July 1961, due to the nationalization of Egypt’s private sector, the merged Cairo and Alexandria Bourses were listed together as the fourth largest stock market in the world. During renovations of the Stock Exchange in the late 1990s, the owners decided to extend their improvements to include the entire neighborhood, transforming it from a grid of small, grimy traffic-clogged side streets into the delightful pedestrian passageways that exist now.