Mosque of Muhammad Ali in Cairo: History, Tickets and the Sultan Hassan and Al-Rifai Mosques Nearby

The Mosque of Muhammad Ali is the large Ottoman-style mosque with two pencil minarets that crowns the Cairo Citadel. It was built for Muhammad Ali Pasha, the ruler of Egypt, between 1830 and 1848, and he is buried inside. People call it the Alabaster Mosque after the alabaster that covers its lower walls. There is no separate ticket: entry is included in the Cairo Citadel ticket, which costs EGP 550 for foreign adults and EGP 275 for students at the time of writing, and the site is open daily from 8:00 to 17:00.

Most visitors need 45 to 75 minutes for the mosque and two to three hours for the whole Citadel. Below the walls stand two more great mosques, Sultan Hassan and Al-Rifai, which our guides almost always add to the same morning. This guide covers all three.

Because alabaster panels cover the lower walls of the prayer hall and the courtyard. The pale, smooth stone makes the building look bright in the sun and sets it apart from the older stone mosques of Islamic Cairo. Up close you see that the alabaster is a facing on the walls, not the material of the whole building.

Muhammad Ali Pasha came to power in 1805 and turned Egypt into a modern state, with a new army, schools, factories and irrigation. In 1811 he broke the power of the Mamluk beys by having them killed as they left a banquet at the Citadel. He then rebuilt much of the fortress, tearing down Mamluk palaces, and chose its highest point for a mosque that the whole city would see.

A first design by the French architect Pascal Coste was rejected in favour of an Ottoman plan, a clear statement of loyalty to Istanbul in style even as Muhammad Ali ruled Egypt as his own. Work started in 1830; the official heritage date is 1265 AH / 1848 AD, the year before his death, and the decoration was finished under his successors in 1857. His body was moved that year into a tomb of Carrara marble inside the prayer hall.

The central dome and prayer hall

The prayer hall is almost square, with a central dome about 52 m high and 21 m wide resting on four great piers, surrounded by half-domes and smaller domes. Hundreds of small lamps hang from rings below the dome together with a large central chandelier. Step to the centre of the hall and look up: that is the view people remember.

Mihrab and minbars

The mihrab, the niche that shows the direction of Mecca, is of alabaster. The mosque has two minbars (pulpits): the large original one of wood decorated with gold, and a smaller alabaster one given by King Farouk in 1939.

The tomb of Muhammad Ali Pasha

To the right as you enter, in the western corner of the hall, is the tomb: a tall marble cenotaph behind a bronze screen, a gift of his grandson Abbas I.

The minarets

The two slim Ottoman minarets rise more than 80 m and give the Cairo skyline its best-known silhouette. Compare them with the carved stone minarets of the Mamluk mosques below the Citadel and you see two different worlds of Islamic architecture.

The open courtyard, surrounded by domed arcades, has an ablution fountain in the centre under a carved canopy. On its western side stands a copper clock tower given by King Louis Philippe of France around 1846, in the exchange that sent the obelisk of Luxor Temple to the Place de la Concorde in Paris. The clock was broken for most of its life; it was repaired under King Farouk but has rarely kept time. Our guides always tell this story here: Paris received a 3,000-year-old obelisk, Cairo a clock.

From the terrace next to the mosque you get one of the best views of Cairo: the domes and minarets of the old city, Sultan Hassan and Al-Rifai right below you and, on clear days, the pyramids on the horizon.

Fees change and hours can be shorter in Ramadan, so check the official monuments site before you go. Buy the tickets at the gate, and keep some cash.

Dress code and etiquette

• Cover shoulders and knees; women may be asked to cover their hair, so carry a light scarf.
• Take your shoes off before the prayer hall; wear socks and shoes that are easy to remove.
• Non-Muslim visitors are welcome outside prayer times. During the Friday noon prayer, visit the courtyard and the rest of the Citadel first.
• Photos are allowed; no flash during prayer, and do not photograph people praying.

How long to stay and when to go

Arrive at 8:00. The Citadel is on a hill with a lot of open stone, and by late morning in summer it is hot and full of school groups. The softest light on the mosque is early morning and late afternoon. Read our full guide to the Salah El Din Citadel for the other mosques, palaces and museums inside the walls.

Below the Citadel, across the old Rumayla square, stands the Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Hassan, the masterpiece of Mamluk Cairo. It was begun in 1356 for the Mamluk sultan al-Nasir Hasan and finished in 1363. It was the most expensive building of medieval Cairo: about 150 m long and 36 m high, with an entrance portal 38 m high and a minaret that reached about 84 m, the tallest of the Mamluk period.

Inside, a dark, bending corridor opens suddenly onto a bright courtyard framed by four huge iwans (vaulted halls). Each iwan served one of the four schools of Sunni law, which had their own small madrasa behind it with rooms for students. The mausoleum lies behind the qibla wall, under a dome. Sultan Hassan himself never lay in it: he was killed in 1361 and his body was never found, so the tomb holds two of his sons.

The building was also a fortress. Its roof faces the Citadel, and rebels fired on the Citadel from it more than once, which is why some sultans had the stairs blocked. Look at the long Kufic inscription in the qibla iwan and the chains that once held hundreds of glass lamps.

Next to Sultan Hassan, and built to match it, stands Al-Rifai Mosque. It was commissioned by Khushyar (Hoshiyar) Hanim, the mother of Khedive Ismail, as a mosque and a royal burial place. Work began in 1869 to the design of Hussein Fahmi Pasha, stopped for years, and was finished in 1912 in a neo-Mamluk style, so the two buildings look like contemporaries although 550 years apart.

Al-Rifai is the burial place of the Egyptian royal family: Khedive Ismail and his mother, King Fuad I and King Farouk lie here. In a separate chamber is the tomb of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, who died in Cairo in 1980. The mosque takes its name from the Rifai Sufi order: it replaced the zawiya of Ali Abu Shubbak al-Rifai, a grandson of the order's founder Ahmad al-Rifai, who is buried inside. Inside, compare the polished marble, gilding and carved wood with the bare stone of Sultan Hassan across the street.

Visiting Sultan Hassan and Al-Rifai

• One ticket covers both mosques; the entrances face each other across a pedestrian street.
• Allow about an hour for both: 40 minutes at Sultan Hassan, 20 at Al-Rifai.
• From the Citadel gate it is about a 15-minute walk downhill or a five-minute drive.
• The same dress code applies; scarves are available at the entrance.

1. 8:00 Cairo Citadel: the Mosque of Muhammad Ali, the view terrace and the Mamluk mosque of al-Nasir Muhammad.
2. 10:30 Sultan Hassan and Al-Rifai: the Mamluk and the royal answer to the Citadel's Ottoman mosque.
3. 12:00 lunch, then on to Al-Muizz Street and the market of Khan el-Khalili for the afternoon.

To compare more of the city's great mosques, see our guide to the famous mosques of Cairo, and for the objects behind the architecture, the Museum of Islamic Art. If you are choosing dates, read the best months to visit Egypt.

Yes. It is the one stop in Cairo that gives you a great building, a turning point of modern Egyptian history and the best view over the old city in the same hour. It suits first-time visitors well, because the story is easy to follow. Add Sultan Hassan to see what came before: two very different answers, five centuries apart, to the question of what a great mosque should look like.

Our Egyptian Museum, Citadel and Khan el-Khalili tour combines the Mosque of Muhammad Ali with the museum and the old market in one guided day. For other combinations, browse our Cairo day tours.