Cairo Citadel Opens Another Wing to Public to Attract More Visitors

 A view of the Al-Ramla and Al-Haddad towers after their renovation for re-opening to the public, that will increase visitors and numbers of visiting hours for Salah al-Din citadel, which was constructed under the Muslim military commander Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi around 1176 A.D, in Cairo, Egypt, February 18, 2024. (Reuters)
A view of the Al-Ramla and Al-Haddad towers after their renovation for re-opening to the public, that will increase visitors and numbers of visiting hours for Salah al-Din citadel, which was constructed under the Muslim military commander Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi around 1176 A.D, in Cairo, Egypt, February 18, 2024. (Reuters)
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Cairo Citadel Opens Another Wing to Public to Attract More Visitors

 A view of the Al-Ramla and Al-Haddad towers after their renovation for re-opening to the public, that will increase visitors and numbers of visiting hours for Salah al-Din citadel, which was constructed under the Muslim military commander Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi around 1176 A.D, in Cairo, Egypt, February 18, 2024. (Reuters)
A view of the Al-Ramla and Al-Haddad towers after their renovation for re-opening to the public, that will increase visitors and numbers of visiting hours for Salah al-Din citadel, which was constructed under the Muslim military commander Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi around 1176 A.D, in Cairo, Egypt, February 18, 2024. (Reuters)

Cairo's citadel, one of the Egyptian capital's most prominent landmarks, opened another wing housing two semi-circular towers to the public on Sunday, to expand the country's tourist attractions.

One of the world's biggest mediaeval citadels, the Citadel of Cairo dates back to about 1176 A.D. when construction began under the Muslim military commander Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi, who later went on to capture Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187 A.D.

The fortress, also known as the Saladin Citadel and which towers over Cairo, was the base of Egypt's government for over 700 years.

The newly opened section was used until recently as a private events space and to house army and police barracks.

It includes the Ramla and Haddad (blacksmith) towers, built in the decades following Salah al-Din's death by his successors Sultan Al-Adil Al-Ayyubi and Sultan Al-Nasser Saladin Al-Ayyubi.

Tourism minister Ahmed Eissa said opening the additional section to the public was part of a broad plan to improve tourism in Egypt that will be formally announced next month.

"I'm being told by travel agencies that the citadel visit doesn't last more than an hour. Our plan in the coming months is to extend the time in which visitors tour the citadel from one hour to at least three," he told reporters.

"This is the first effort we're making to relaunch Cairo as a new cultural product which we will call 'Cairo City Break', with the details to be unveiled in the coming months," Eissa added.



UN Puts 4th Century Gaza Monastery on Endangered Site List

The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File
The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File
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UN Puts 4th Century Gaza Monastery on Endangered Site List

The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File
The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File

The Saint Hilarion complex, one of the oldest monasteries in the Middle East, has been put on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites in danger due to the war in Gaza, the body said Friday.
UNESCO said the site, which dates back to the fourth century, had been put on the endangered list at the demand of Palestinian authorities and cited the "imminent threats" it faced.
"It's the only recourse to protect the site from destruction in the current context," Lazare Eloundou Assomo, director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, told AFP, referring to the war sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel.
In December, the UNESCO Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict decided to grant "provisional enhanced protection" -- the highest level of immunity established by the 1954 Hague Convention -- to the site.
UNESCO had then said it was "already concerned about the state of conservation of sites, before October 7, due to the lack of adequate policies to protect heritage and culture" in Gaza.
The Hamas attack on October 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel's retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 39,175 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.