Mosque of Muhammad Ali

The Muhammad Ali Mosque (aka Masjid Muhammad ʿ Alī / مسجد محمد علي /, Muhammad Ali Mosque '), sometimes called the Alabaster Mosque, is one of the major mosques in Cairo. It was built on the orders of Muhammad Ali Pasha in the years 1824-1884 in Ottoman style with Baroque elements. Responsible for the construction drew the Greek Bosnak Yusuf from Istanbul, the style was based at the city's New Mosque ( Turkish: Yeni Cami ).

The mosque is located in the Citadel of Cairo, where destroyed by a gunpowder explosion in 1824 parts of the building have been replaced by the mosque.

The two minarets are 82 meters high, the large dome has a height of 52 meters. At the entrance there is a large courtyard in the middle of a cleaning wells ( hanafiyya ) is. The courtyard is surrounded by arcades. The interior has paneled walls alabaster, which the mosque derives its common name.

Inside, close to the large gold-trimmed, partly provided with Koran sayings main dome 21 meters in diameter in the corners of four smaller domes on the sides and four half- domes on.

The floor is covered with thick red carpets.

How many mosques in the interior is illuminated by circularly arranged electrical lighting, the traditional oil lamps are now in the museum. The prayer room has two ornate pulpit ( minbar ).

Right of the entrance is the grave of Muhammad Ali, who died in 1849 so many years before the completion of the mosque.

On the west side of the courtyard a fraction, a clock tower, a gift from the French King Louis Philippe in 1846 finds himself stylistically thanks for the Obelisk of Luxor, which is in Paris at the Place de la Concorde today. However, the clock never worked.

Others

The mosque can be visited outside the times of prayer and even non-Muslims, but only without shoes that need to be parked at the entrance and in appropriate clothing. Should the clothing not be sufficiently obtained at the entrance a cape.