Citadel of Saladin

Crowning a spur of the Mokattam hills, the Citadel of Saladin has commanded Cairo's skyline since the 12th century, when the great sultan Salah al-Din raised it as a fortress against the Crusaders. For some 700 years it was the seat of Egypt's rulers, and its walls and towers enclose a small city of mosques, palaces and museums layered by successive dynasties.

The showpiece is the 19th-century Mosque of Muhammad Ali, its silver domes and slender Ottoman minarets visible for miles, its vast alabaster-clad interior glowing beneath cascading chandeliers. From the ramparts the view sweeps across medieval Cairo's minarets to the distant Pyramids of Giza on a clear day. It is one of the city's essential stops, tying together military history, imperial ambition and Islamic art in a single commanding site.