The Suleiman Pasha Al-Khadem Mosque, the first mosque to be built in Egypt in the Ottoman style, will be open soon after restoration, said Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Mostafa Waziry.
This mosque is located inside the Citadel of Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi, next to the wall of the citadel. It was built by Suleiman Pasha al-Khadem, one of the prominent Ottoman statesmen during the reign of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566).
The mosque was built in 1528, on the ruins of an old mosque that was built by Abu Mansur Qasta, the governor of Alexandria in the Fatimid era, in 1141, in this place before the construction of the Citadel.
Waziry said that the ongoing restoration work began in 2017 and is being carried out under the supervision of the Islamic, Coptic and Jewish projects and antiquities sectors of the SCA with self-financing.
The mosque has four stone facades and two main parts: the covered part, which is the prayer area. The layout also includes an open space between the prayer area and the ablution, and the general layout contains a kuttab attached to the mosque.
Its minaret has a pointed Ottoman peak, and the first example of an Ottoman minaret in Egypt.
Waziry said work is in full swing to finish the project as soon as possible and open the mosque to visitors soon.
