Cairo Citadel
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The Saladin Citadel of Cairo (Arabic: قلعة صلاح الدين) is one of the most popular tourist attractions of Cairo. It is located at 30° 1'43.03"N 31°15'36.56"E.
It is sometimes referred to as Mohamed Ali Citadel (Arabic: قلعة محمد علي), because it contains the mosque of Mohamed Ali (or Muhammad Ali), which was built almost 7 centuries later. The Mosque of Muhammad 'Ali Pasha was built between 1828 and 1848, perched on the summit of the citadel. [1] The Ottoman mosque was built in memory of Tusun Pasha, Muhammad `Ali's oldest son, who died in 1816.
The location, part of the Mokattam hill near the center of Cairo, was once famous for its fresh breeze and grand views of the city, and was fortified by Saladin between 1176 and 1183 AD, to protect it from the Crusaders. The citadel stopped being the seat of government when Egypt's ruler, Khedive Ismail, moved to his newly built Abdin Palace in the Ismailiya neighborhood in the 1860s.
The citadel also contains Al-Gawhara palace, the National Military Museum and the Police Museum.
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