Cairo - Mohammed Ali Mosque

The Citadel is entered by the Bab el-Gedid, which leads into a courtyard and then through the Bab el-Wastani into the main courtyard. On the south side of this is the Mohammed Ali Mosque, often called the Alabaster Mosque, one of the city's great landmarks with its tall and disproportionately slender minarets. It was begun in 1824 by Mohammed (Mehemet) Ali but completed only in 1857, under his successor Said. The architect was a Greek named Yusuf Boshna from Istanbul, who took as his model the Nuruosmaniye Mosque in that city, itself modeled on the Hagia Sophia.