SULTAN HASSAN MOSQUE

• It was a school, or madrasa, but for the first time in Cairo, the madrasa had also the status of a congregational mosque for Friday sermons.
• There are many interesting stories about this mosque, which is considered to be Cairo's finest example of early Mamluk architecture.
• In fact, it is to be considered the finest ancient mosque in Cairo, and has been praised as one of the major monuments of the Islamic world.
• This mosque is also considered one of the largest, not only in Cairo but in the whole Islamic world.
• Its construction cost an average of 20,000 dirham every day for some five years, a sum that would be considered a lot even today.
• Sultan Hassan (the builder of this great mosq  ue), imported engineers from throughout the world to build his great monument.
• Also craftsmen from all over the world worked on the mosque of Sultan Hassan.
• It once overlooked an area below the Citadel that was used for festivities and sporting events such as polo during the Mamluk Period of the 14th and 15th centuries.
• The stalactites over the entrance of this mosque, makes one feel like one has entered a magical cave, passing through to an otherworldly experience. Inside the Sahn, one finds oneself emerged in the Mamluk era.

• Its Qibla Iwan is the largest vaulted hall of the medieval Muslim world.