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Sultan Hassan Mosque
Directly below the Citadel are two mosques, the one on the left, with the tall minarets, is the Sultan Hassan Mosque.
This was considered a huge mosque when it was begun in 1356 and finished 6 years later. It is over 150 meters long and encloses roughly 7900 square meters, making it one of the largest mosques in existance. The main walls are 26m tall and the tallest minaret is 68m tall. Being so large, it was meant to have minarets at all four corners, but the first one collapsed, killing 300 people and they changed the plan.
The sponsor of the mosque, Sultan Hassan (a son of Al-Nasir) died in 1391 and construction continued to be changed through the years. Another minaret fell in 1659 and then the main dome fell as well. Finally, the roof of the mosque was used as an artillery platform, which did more damage.
Tne interior of the mosque is dark and gloomy - it is best seen in the morning when the light streams in and illuminates the cavernous liwans. The entire mosque is in a cruciform shape --common for a Mamluke mosque -- with each arm supporting a liwan teaching a different rite of Sunni Islam.
