Citadel of Saladin

The Citadel of Saladin (Qal'at Salah El-Din) in the Al Abageyah district of Cairo is a medieval Islamic fortification begun in 1176 by Saladin, founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, to defend Cairo against Crusader incursions. Perched on a limestone spur of the Muqattam hills southeast of the city center, it served as the seat of Egypt's government for nearly 700 years until the reign of Khedive Ismail in the 1860s. The dominant structure is the Mosque of Muhammad Ali, built between 1830 and 1848 in Ottoman Turkish style with twin minarets and a large central dome ringed by smaller semi-domes. Its interior is lined with alabaster to a height of 11 meters, giving it the popular name the Alabaster Mosque. The courtyard's marble ablution fountain is framed by an ornate clock tower — a gift from King Louis-Philippe of France in exchange for the Luxor obelisk in Paris. The citadel also contains the older Mosque of al-Nasir Muhammad (1318), a police museum, a military museum with carriages and weapons, and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (partially). The northern rampart walk offers the most expansive panorama of Cairo, sweeping across the minarets of the medieval city toward Giza on clear days — the pyramids are visible as pale triangles on the western horizon. The citadel is reachable by taxi from central Cairo in 15 minutes or on foot from Khan el-Khalili in 20 minutes. Allow two to three hours for mosques, museums, and rampart walk.