Citadel of Qaitbay Castle in Egypt. Photo credit: Ehab Samy
Citadel of Qaitbay, Egypt
The Citadel of Qaitbay castle is an extraordinary fortress in Alexandria, Egypt, created to serve as part of the city’s defensive system until the late 19th century. In the 1950s, the government of Egypt turned it into a Maritime Museum.
The magnificent castle, which sits on the eastern side of the northern tip of Pharos Island on the mouth of the Eastern Harbor, was built in 1477 AD by Sultan Al-Ashraf Sayf al-Din Qa’it Bay. All through the Mameluke age, the Citadel castle remained the favorite fort for all the rulers that came after Qaitbay.
Its strategic location made it the perfect security checkpoint of the city of Alexandria. But since the Orabi Revolt in 1882, which destroyed a large part of the city, the castle remained deserted until 1904 when the Egyptian Ministry of Defense restored its upper floor. Subsequent renovations have been done, the biggest one being the facelift by the Egyptian Antiquities Organization in 1984.
