THE CITADEL

• One of Cairo's most popular tourist attractions is the Citadel, located on a spur of limestone that had been detached from its parent Moqattam Hills by quarrying.
• It was built by the great Salah El-Din Elayoubi (the founder of the Ayoubied Dynasty in Egypt).
• Salah ad-Din used the most modern fortress building techniques of that time to construct the original Citadel.
• Most of the fortification was built after Salah ad-Din's rule, being added to by almost every ruler that succeded Salah El-Din.
• The Citadel is one of the world's greatest monuments to medieval warfare, as well as a highly visible landmark on Cairo's eastern skyline.
• Originally it served as both a fortress and a royal city, that’s why it became the seat of the ruling ship after wards.
• By the mid 17th century, the Citadel had become an enclosed residential district with private shops and other commercial enterprises, as well as public baths and a maze of small streets.
• It’s location provides a strategic advantage, both to dominate Cairo and to defend outside attackers.
• The Bir Yusuf (Salah ad-Din's Well) was dug in order to supply the occupants of the fortress with an inexhaustible supply of drinking water. It is not simply a shaft.  There is a ramp large enough so that animals could descend into the well in order to power the machinery that lifted the water.
• An-Nasir Muhammad, an interesting Sultan of this era who ruled during three separate periods (1294-1295, 1299-1309 and 1310-1341) built  in the Southern Enclosure considerably grander structures. Unfortunately, the only remaining facility built by him is the An-Nasir Mohammed Mosque.
• The Ottomans rebuilt the wall that separates  the Northern and Southern Enclosures.  They also built the largest tower in today's Citadel, the Burg al-Muqattam which rises above the entrance to the Citadel.
• The Ottoman Muhammad Ali Pasha, one of the great builders of Modern Egypt, was responsible for considerable alteration and building within the Citadel, He built inside also his very famous Mosque, known as the Alabaster Mosque.
• • South of this Mosque in the Hawsh is the Gawharah (Jewel) Palace. This structure was built between 1811 and 1814 and housed the Egyptian government until it was later moved to the Abdeen Palace.
  • Today there is also a National Police Museum at the Citadel. It was built over the site of the Mamluk Striped Palace just opposite the Mosque of an-Nasir Muhammad. It has displays of law enforcement dating back to the dynastic period.  However, in 1983 a hall from the Striped Palace was discovered buried deep beneath rubble, and can be seen at the southern end of this terrace. The terrace also provides a wonderful view of Cairo.
  • Just through the Bab al-Qullah in the Northern Enclosure one finds Muhammad Ali's Harem Palace that was built in the same Ottoman style as t  he Jewel Palace, and is used as the Millitary Museum since 1949.
  • While this Museum has many artifacts illustrating warfare in Egypt, one of the most interesting attractions is the Summer Room. This room contains an elaborate system of marble fountains, basins and channels, meant as a cooling system and is probably the last such example in Cairo.