---
node: spot_cairo_citadel_of_cairo
type: spot
slug: citadel_of_cairo
destination: dest_cairo
title: "Cairo Citadel"
lead: "The Citadel is Saladin's fortress on the Muqattam spur, begun in 1176 and the seat of Egypt's rulers for nearly seven hundred years. The Ottoman-style mosque of Muhammad Ali on its summit is Cairo's most visible silhouette."
published: 2026-08-12
updated: 2026-08-12
image_file: spot_cairo_citadel_of_cairo.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Muhammad_Ali_Mosque,_Citadel,_Cairo,_Egypt3.jpg"
image_author: "Diego Delso"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 3.0"
---

## Overview

Saladin sited it to command the city and the road from Syria, and successive dynasties rebuilt within the walls rather than beside them. Muhammad Ali cleared the Mamluk palaces in the 1820s and raised his alabaster mosque, modelled on Istanbul rather than Cairo — a deliberate statement about which capital he was answering to. Three museums now occupy the lower enclosures.

## Highlights

The terrace outside the mosque gives the classic view over the city to the pyramids on a clear day, which in Cairo means winter mornings. The mosque interior, hung with a ring of glass lamps, is worth sitting in for ten minutes. The Police Museum, oddly, holds the best view of the enclosure walls.