Given it’s name after it was built to defend Cairo against attacks, The Cairo Citadel or Saladin Citadel (قلعة صلاح الدين) used to be part of a wall that surrounded Cairo, and was built on a hill to make it harder for invaders to get to it. Now, the Cairo Citadel is a major tourist attraction, and Cairo has far outgrown the wall (some of which still remains)
One of the major attraction in the Cairo Citadel is the Mosque of Mohamed Ali (مسجد محمد علي), it was designed Yussuf Bushnaq, the mosque was begun in 1830 (finished in 1857) in the Ottoman style by Mohammad Ali Pasha, ruler of Egypt, and founder of the country’s last dynasty of Khedives and Kings. The mosque is the Tomb of Mohammad Ali and is also known as the Alabaster Mosque because of the extensive use of this fine material from Beni Suef. Its two slender 270 foot minarets are unusual for Cairo. From the arcaded courtyard, visitors have a magnificent view across the city to the pyramids in Giza. Just off the courtyard is the vast prayer hall with an Ottoman style dome which is 170 feet above. The parapet to the southwest offers a good view of the Sultan Hassan and El Refaee Mosques and of Cairo itself.
