Cairo Citadel

Also known as Citadel of Saladin, Qal'at al-Jabal, Salah ad-Din Citadel

Saladin began the Cairo Citadel in 1176 on a spur of the Mokattam hills overlooking the city. It was a deliberate strategic move: a single fortified enclosure unifying the Fatimid palace city of al-Qahira with the older settlement of al-Fustat, and giving the new Ayyubid sultanate a defensible command centre from which to co-ordinate the wars against the Crusader states. From this citadel Saladin and his heirs directed the campaigns that broke the Kingdom of Jerusalem at Hattin in 1187 and the dynasties that followed — Ayyubid, Mamluk, Ottoman, and Muhammad 'Ali's nineteenth-century modernisers — all expanded it. The medieval walls, the round towers, and the great open cisterns of Saladin's original work still survive alongside the later Ottoman-era Mosque of Muhammad 'Ali, and the complex remains the dominant skyline feature of historic Cairo.

Coordinates: 30.0294°, 31.2611°

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