The Cairo Citadel with the Muhammad Ali Mosque

Getty Images/Moment RM

Citadel

Cairo


Sprawling over a limestone spur on the city's eastern edge, the Citadel, started by Saladin in 1176 as a fortification against the Crusaders, was home to Egypt’s rulers for 700 years. Their legacy is a collection of three very different mosques, several palaces (housing some either underwhelming, or nearly-always closed museums) and a couple of terraces with superb Cairo views – on a clear day you'll see Giza's Pyramids poking up in the far distance.

Following their overthrow of Saladin’s Ayyubid dynasty, the Mamluks enlarged the complex, adding sumptuous palaces and harems. Under the Ottomans (1517–1798) the fortress expanded westward and a new main gate, the Bab Al Azab, was added, while the Mamluk palaces deteriorated. Even so, when Napoleon’s French expedition took control in 1798, the emperor’s savants regarded these buildings as some of the finest Islamic monuments in Cairo.

This didn’t stop Mohammed Ali – who rose to power after the French – from drastically remodelling, and crowning the complex with the Ottoman-style mosque that dominates Cairo’s eastern skyline. After Mohammed Ali’s grandson Ismail moved his residence to the Abdeen Palace, the Citadel became a military garrison. The British army was barracked here during WWII, and Egyptian soldiers still have a small foothold, although most of the Citadel has been given over to tourists.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Cairo attractions

1. Mosque of An Nasir Mohammed

0.07 MILES

Dwarfed by Mohammed Ali’s mosque, this beautiful 1318 mosque is the only Mamluk work that Mohammed Ali didn’t demolish – instead, he used it as a stable…

2. National Military Museum

0.09 MILES

Mohammed Ali’s one-time Harem Palace is now the lavish National Military Museum. It was closed for restoration on our last visit though unlike the other…

3. Police Museum

0.11 MILES

The quirky but flyblown Police Museum is located within the Citadel's old prison building. Inside are displays of famous political assassinations,…

4. Carriage Museum

0.12 MILES

Houses a collection of carriages used by Egypt's royalty from Khedive Ismail to King Farouk. Like many of the Citadel museums though, it's often shut.

5. Mosque of Mohammed Ali

0.14 MILES

Modelled on classic Ottoman lines, with domes upon domes upon domes, this alabaster-white mosque within the Citadel took 18 years to build (1830–48) and…

6. Site of the Massacre of the Mamluks

0.15 MILES

From the terrace near the Police Museum you can look down into the narrow entrance where 470 Mamluk beys (governors) were killed by Mohammed Ali's troops…

7. Mosque of Suleiman Pasha

0.19 MILES

Sulieman Pasha, governor of Cairo's Janissary troops, built this small Ottoman-style mosque in the early 16th century.

8. Gawhara Palace & Museum

0.19 MILES

South of Mohammed Ali’s mosque is the Gawhara Palace & Museum, a lame attempt to evoke 19th-century court life, but it’s most often closed. There are…

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