Sultan Saladin (Salah ad-Din) started its construction in 1176 to protect the city from the Crusaders. Finished in 1183, it was the seat of the Egyptian government for 666 years, until 1849. Between 1830 and 1848, an Albanian Ottoman governor, Muhammad Ali of Egypt and the Sudan commissioned the Great Mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha on the site of the Citadel. Nowadays, it is one of the landmarks of Cairo.
