Mohammed Ali Mosque

About Mohammed Ali Mosque

Mosque in Egypt

The Mosque of Muhammad Ali, also called the Alabaster Mosque, is the best-known landmark of the Citadel of Salah al-Din and the most visible mosque on Cairo's skyline, its domes and two slender minarets recognisable from across the city. Muhammad Ali Pasha commissioned it and construction ran from the 1830s to the 1850s, in an Ottoman style modelled on the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul and completed by his successors. Unlike the traditional Cairene architecture that preceded it, the mosque is entirely Ottoman and European-influenced in character. Its name comes from the extensive use of alabaster cladding on its inner and outer walls. It was built on part of the site of the Mamluk Ablaq Palace inside the Citadel, and Muhammad Ali himself is buried here in a marble tomb to the right of the entrance. The prayer hall is crowned by a large central dome resting on four half-domes, and the spacious courtyard holds an ablution fountain; above one side rises a clock tower whose clock was a gift from King Louis-Philippe of France in 1845, in return for the Luxor obelisk that now stands in the Place de la Concorde in Paris. Muhammad Ali's successors cared for the mosque and used it for annual religious ceremonies. The largest restoration came under King Fuad I after structural faults cracked the walls, and King Farouk reopened it for prayer. The Mosque of al-Nasir Muhammad stands next to it inside the Citadel, and the terrace in front offers a famous view over Historic Cairo that reaches the Pyramids on clear days.

Where:

Cairo, Egypt