Cairo Citadel tickets

How much is a Cairo Citadel ticket in 2026?

EGP 550 for a foreign adult and EGP 275 for a foreign student. Egyptians pay EGP 60.

The official page lists a few small extras too. None of them are things you need to plan around, but here they are.

Bring an ISIC card for the student rate. On a tour, check the option: entry fees are an option on the private Citadel day and the Citadel and Cave Church tour, and included on the guided day with entry fees.

Can you pay cash at the Citadel?

No. The Citadel ticket offices have been cashless since June 2023: pay by bank card.

Visa and Mastercard work. Guests report you can pay by card almost everywhere at the Citadel, apart from small car fees, so keep a few notes too. Bring small pounds anyway for the shoe-keeper at the mosque door and for toilets.

If you're on a tour without the tickets option, buy your own ticket at the window. Don't hand cash to anyone offering to "prepay" it for you.

What are the Citadel opening hours?

08:00 to 17:00 every day. The Muhammad Ali Mosque inside is open 08:00 to 16:00 and closes to visitors during Friday noon prayer.

Come at opening time. The hilltop has little shade, the marble courtyard bounces the sun back at you, and tour buses arrive mid-morning. Late afternoon has the best light over the city, but the mosque shuts an hour before the rest of the site.

On Fridays, skip the mosque between about 11:30 and 13:30. Walk the walls and the terraces then, or plan the Coptic churches for midday.

What does the Citadel ticket include?

The whole walled site: the Muhammad Ali Mosque, the Mamluk mosque of al-Nasir Muhammad, the Ottoman Sulayman Pasha Mosque and the terraces with the view over Cairo.

• Muhammad Ali Mosque: included in the Citadel ticket, per the Ministry. Most visitors spend half their time here.
• Mosque of al-Nasir Muhammad ibn Qalawun: a 14th-century Mamluk mosque across the courtyard, with green-tiled minaret tops.
• Sulayman Pasha al-Khadim Mosque: a small Ottoman mosque in the northern enclosure.
• The terraces: the view west over Sultan Hassan, Al-Rifai and a sea of minarets. On a clear day you can pick out the Giza pyramids.
• Museums: the Ministry page also lists the Police Museum, the Al-Gawhara Palace Museum and the Military Museum. Their halls have closed for restoration for long spells in recent years, so treat them as a bonus and ask at the ticket office which are open that day.

What is the Muhammad Ali Mosque like inside?

Huge, dim and lit by rings of hanging lamps under a central dome and four half-domes. Its walls are panelled in alabaster, which is why Cairenes call it the Alabaster Mosque.

Muhammad Ali Pasha built it from 1830; the Ministry dates its completion to 1848. The style is Ottoman, modelled on the great mosques of Istanbul, and its two pencil minarets, 84 metres tall, are the highest in Egypt according to the Ministry. In the courtyard, look up at the copper clock tower. Louis-Philippe of France gave it in 1845, in return for the Luxor obelisk that now stands on the Place de la Concorde.

Shoes come off at the door. Visitors with bare shoulders or legs are handed a robe. Details in what to wear to Cairo mosques.

How do you get to the Cairo Citadel?

By car. There is no metro station nearby, so take an Uber or Careem to the Citadel entrance on Salah Salem Road, or come on a tour.

Uber drivers know "the Citadel" (al-Qal'a). Ask for the visitors' entrance, not the military gate. From Sultan Hassan below the hill, the walk up to the entrance is steep and uphill along the road; a short car hop saves your legs in the heat.

Most visitors combine the Citadel with Sultan Hassan, then Coptic Cairo or Khan el-Khalili. These are kilometres apart in some of the slowest traffic in Cairo, which is where a private car earns its money. Guests on the private Citadel day keep praising drivers for exactly that.

The Citadel, Sultan Hassan, Al-Rifai, three Coptic churches, Ben Ezra and the bazaar with a private guide. Rated 4.9 from 133 reviews.

★ 4.9 · 6 to 8 hours · from $60 per person in a group

Explore the private Citadel and Old Cairo day → Tour details

Is Sultan Hassan included in the Citadel ticket?

No. The Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Hassan and the Al-Rifai Mosque share one separate ticket: EGP 220 for a foreign adult, open 09:00 to 17:00.

The two face each other across a square at the foot of the Citadel. Sultan Hassan was built in 1356 to 1363, with four soaring iwans around a courtyard, one for each of the four Sunni schools of law. Al-Rifai opposite looks as old but was finished in 1912; inside are royal tombs, among them King Farouk and the last Shah of Iran.

Citadel plus Sultan Hassan comes to EGP 770 per adult, about $15. That's the add-up most Islamic Cairo days run to. The full picture of tour prices is in Old Cairo tour prices.

Do you need a guide for the Citadel?

Not to get in, but it helps. The site has few signs, and a guide turns three mosques and a view into a story of 700 years of rule from the hill.

The Citadel was the seat of Egypt's rulers for about 700 years, from Saladin to the 19th century. Without context it's a big mosque and a great view. With a guide you'll hear about the massacre of the Mamluks in 1811 and why the Ottoman mosque looks nothing like the Mamluk ones below it.

Options here: the 4-hour private tour stops at the Muhammad Ali Mosque between Coptic Cairo and the bazaar. The private Citadel day gives it more time and adds Sultan Hassan. The Citadel and Cave Church tour comes with an Egyptologist guide and pairs it with Mokattam.

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