Muhammad Ali Mosque

The mosque that gives Cairo its skyline: a great central dome, cascading half-domes and two needle-thin minarets, set on the highest point of the Citadel. The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities gives the minarets' height as 84 m each, the tallest in Egypt, and notes that the building is known as the Alabaster Mosque for the stone panelling inside and out.

It is a nineteenth-century statement in an Ottoman accent, and it carries a story that links it to Luxor. The question it answers is how a modern ruler chose to be seen.

Muhammad Ali Pasha built the mosque in 1848 (1265 AH), on the site of the Mamluk palaces inside the Citadel. Its plan follows the Turkish style: an open court and a square prayer hall under a central dome, with four half-domes around it and four shallow domes in the corners.

In the court stands a copper clock tower, a gift from King Louis-Philippe of France in 1845. In return, Muhammad Ali gave France one of the pair of obelisks of Ramesses II that stood before the entrance of Luxor Temple. It now stands in the Place de la Concorde in Paris. Its twin still stands at Luxor; our Luxor Temple page picks up the story from the other end.

Cross the court to the clock tower first, then go inside. Under the dome, look for the two pulpits: the original, of wood painted green, and a later one of marble. Then look up: the scale of the dome is the point of the building. Our suggestion is to go outside afterwards to the Citadel terrace and look back at the minarets against the sky.