Its location on a promontory of the Mokattam hills near the center of Cairo commands a strategic position overlooking the city and dominating its skyline.

In the first half of the 19th century Muhammad Ali Pasha demolished many of the older buildings and built new palaces and monuments all across the site, giving it much of its present form.

[5] The Citadel stopped being the seat of government when Egypt's ruler, Khedive Ismail, moved to his newly built Abdin Palace in the new downtown Cairo in 1874.

Despite its elaborate defenses, the Citadel never ended up being subjected to a true siege, though it was implicated on various occasions in the political conflicts within Cairo or Egypt.

[1][5][7] The Citadel was begun by the Kurdish Ayyubid ruler Salah al-Din (Saladin) between 1176 and 1183 CE in order to protect Cairo from potential Crusader attacks and to provide a secure center of government for his new regime (only a few years after he had dismantled the Fatimid Caliphate).

[1][9] This also emulated a feature of many Syrian cities, such as Damascus and Aleppo, which had walled citadels that acted as the seat of power and which Saladin was familiar with.

[10] The carved image of a double-headed eagle, found near the top of one of the towers of the western walls (near the Police Museum), is a curious feature which is popularly attributed to Salah ad-Din's reign.

It is located along the walls of the Northern Enclosure, nowadays between the Harem Palace (National Military Museum) and the newer Bab al-Jadid gate.

[7] Today, the inside of the gate's dome-vault is covered in plaster with painted inscriptions belonging to Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad and dated to 1310.

[1][4] Construction of the Ayyubid Citadel appears to have continued under Sultan al-'Adil (r. 1200–1218), Saladin's brother and later successor, and was probably finished under the reign of al-Kamil (1218–1238).

[10] Sultan al-Salih (r. 1240–1249) subsequently moved away from the Citadel again and built himself a new fortified enclosure on Roda Island (which also became the barracks of the Bahri Mamluks who took power after him).

Under the early Bahri Mamluks, the Citadel was continuously developed and the Southern Enclosure in particular was expanded and became the site of important monumental structures.

[10] The gate was intended to control access to the newly delimited Southern Enclosure which Baybars then developed into a more elaborate and more exclusive royal complex.

The tower was obscured by later construction but its remains, including the lion carvings, were rediscovered in the late 20th century and are now visible on the northwestern side of the Police Museum.

[5][7] It was one of the few structures in this area which al-Nasir Muhammad did not destroy but instead re-used for various purposes, and in the Burji Mamluk period it seems to have replaced the Dar al-Niyaba as the palace of the vice-regent.

[10] This new throne hall differed from previous incarnations in one notable respect: it was painted with pictures of al-Ashraf's amirs (commanders), each with their rank inscribed above his head.

[10] He is responsible for several major works in the Citadel, though unfortunately most of them fell into ruin during the Ottoman period and were finally demolished by Muhammad Ali in the 19th century.

[10] In any case, he demolished it (either entirely or in part) and rebuilt it yet again in 1333, and it is this incarnation of the Great Iwan which survived up until the 19th century (when it was destroyed during Muhammad Ali's constructions).

[6] While its structure is well preserved, most of its rich marble paneling decoration was stripped away and shipped to Istanbul by the Ottoman sultan Selim I after his conquest of Egypt.

Sultan al-Salih Isma'il (a son of al-Nasir who reigned from 1342 to 1345) built a richly decorated palace or hall known as al-Duhaysha (the "little wonder") which was inaugurated in February 1344.

[13][14] It was over 50 metres tall and, in addition to a main hall covered by a dome, it also had a tower with an apartment for the sultan which was decorated with ivory and ebony.

The private harem courtyard in the southeastern corner of the Southern Enclosure, known as the hosh, became increasingly used to build new reception halls and other structures with slightly more public functions.

[7]: 246  The Ablaq Palace was used more productively as a manufacturing center for weaving the Kiswah, the rich cloth covering the Kaaba in Mecca, which continued to come from Cairo until the 20th century.

Many of the former Mamluk structures, including the Great Iwan and the Ablaq Palace of al-Nasir Muhammad, were demolished in 1825 to make way for his new mosque and its renovated surroundings.

[17] Muhammad Ali's mosque, with its large dome and tall pencil-like Ottoman minarets, is one of the most prominent monuments on Cairo's skyline to this day.

Notably, he rebuilt the Bab al-Qulla gate and the surrounding wall which separated the Northern and Southern enclosures from each other, giving it its current look.

[16] The Citadel eventually ceased to act as the residence of Egypt's ruler after Khedive Isma'il (Muhammad Ali's grandson) moved the court to the new 'Abdin Palace, located in the newly created districts of downtown Cairo, in 1874.

[4] In 1983, the Egyptian government opened a large part of the Citadel to the public and initiated refurbishment programs to convert some of its old buildings into museums, though the military retains a presence.

[5] This small domed building just outside the Citadel to the east was built in 1495–96 by an amir called Ya'qub Shah al-Mihmandar, a man originally from Erzincan (Turkey) who joined the Mamluk ranks under Sultan Qaytbay.

[24] Muhammad Ali's official divan or audience hall, where the pasha received guests, contains a 1,000 kg chandelier sent to him by Louis Philippe I of France.