The Citadel, Cairo...القلعه موضوع بالصور

The Citadel, Cairo...القلعه موضوع بالصور Title_2

The Citadel is the natural focus of Islamic
Cairo.

The Citadel (Al-Qalaa - usually pronounced
"Al-'Alaa" presents the most dramatic feature of Cairo's skyline: a
centuries-old bastion crowned by the needle-like minarets of the great
Mosque of Mohammed Ali. The fortified complex was begun by Salah al-Din,
the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty - known throughout Christendom as
Saladin, the Crusaders' chivalrous foe. Salah al Din's reign (1171-1193
AD) saw much fortification of the city, though it was his nephew, Al
Kamil, who developed the citadel as a royal residence, later to be
replaced by the palaces of Sultan al-Nasir.

The main features of the Citadel are associated with Mohammed Ali, a
worthy successor to the Mamlukes and Turks. In 1811 he feasted 470
leading Mamlukes in the Citadel palace, bade them farewell with honours,
then had them ambushed in the sloping lane behind the Bab al-Azab, the
locked gate opposite the Akhur Mosque. A painting in the Manial Palace
on Roda Island depicts the apocryphal tale of a Mamluke who escaped by
leaping the walls on his horse - in reality he survived by not attending
the feast.

The Mohammed Ali Mosque is a little disappointing at close quarters. It
has an ornate clock given by Louis Philippe in exchange for the obelisk
in the Place de la Concorde, which has never worked; and the
Turkish Baroque ablutions
fountain, resembling a giant Easter egg. Inside the mosque, whose
lofty dome and
semi-domes are decorated like a Faberge egg, the use of space is
classically Ottoman reminiscent of the great mosques of Istanbul. A
constellation of chandeliers and globe lamps illuminates Thuluth
inscriptions, a gold-scalloped mihrab and two minbars, one faced in
alabaster, the other strangely Art Nouveau. Mohammed Ali is buried
beneath a white marble cenotaph, behind a bronze grille on the right of
the entrance. The mosque itself was erected between 1824 and 1848
although the domes had to be demolished and rebuilt in the 1930s.

Due south of here stands what remains of Mohammed Ali's Al-Gawhara
Palace, where he waited while the Mamlukes were butchered. Also known as
the Bijou (jewelled) Palace, its French-style salons exhibit portraits
of the khedives and kings of Egypt and their wives; life-size models of
monarchs and courtiers in nineteenth-century dress; royal furniture and
tableware; and a collection of awful Impressionist works; the trompe
l'oeil in the main salon is none too successful either. It was around
here that Al Nasir's Striped Palace once stood, and that St Francis of
Assisi preached to the Ayyubid ruler Al-Kamil. For many of the hapless
boy-sultans chosen by the Mamlukes, the palace amounted to a luxury
prison, and finally an execution cell. Nevertheless, the Citadel
remained the residence of Egypt's rulers for nearly 700 years, and
Mohammed Ali prophesied that his descendants would rule supreme as long
as they resided here. Ismail's move to the Abdin Palace did indeed
foreshadow an inexorable decline in their power.

There are many bastions along the
Citadel's ramparts, each
with evocative names. Although the derivation of Burg Kirkyilan (Tower
of the Forty Serpents) is unknown, the Burg al-Matar (Tower of the
Flight Platform) probably housed the royal carrier pigeons. A cluster of
verdigris domes and a pencil-sharp minaret identify the Mosque of
Suleyman Pasha as an early 16th century Ottoman creation, borne out by
the lavish arabesques and rosettes adorning the interior of the cupola
and semi-domes. Inside, cross the courtyard to find a mausoleum where
the tombs of amirs and their families have tabuts indicating their rank
- turbans or hats for the men, floral-patterned lingums for the women.
Adjacent to the courtyard is a madrassa where students took examinations
beneath a riwaq upheld by painted beams.

The Citadel, Cairo...القلعه موضوع بالصور Picture%20352