Qaitbay Citadel This castle was built by Sultan al...

Qaitbay Citadel This castle was built by Sultan al-Ashraf Abu al-Nasr Qaitbay al-Mahmudi in 882 AH / 1477 AD, the place of the ancient lighthouse of Alexandria at the eastern end of the island of Pharos in the late Mamluk state. It is a three-story independent building of 150 meters or less. The square, the second octagon and the third circular and covers the top of the lighthouse dome and topped by the statue of the god Poseidon, the god of the seas and oceans with the famous triple fork in the Greeks and was decorated with marble statues, and the lighthouse is generally built with very huge stones and the way of lighting was made by a pyramid or polygonal mass A brilliantly crafted bronze with a very smooth surface, the work of the woman is suspended with a fireplace underneath, reflecting the light emitted by the flames along about 20 kilometers in the water to guide the ships coming to Alexandria, and its walls are 4.5 meters thick.

The lighthouse had been destroyed after an earthquake in 702 AH during the days of King Nasser Mohammed bin Qalawun, who ordered the restoration, but it was destroyed after several years until it destroyed all its parts in 777 AH / 1375 AD.

When Sultan Qaytbay visited the city of Alexandria in 882 AH / 1477 AD, he went to the site of the old lighthouse and ordered to build on its old foundation a tower later known as Qaytbay Castle or Tabiyya.The construction was completed two years after the date of construction. built some stones old lighthouse extinct, not only in the same place, as the lighthouse itself has built some of the ruins of the ancient Pharaonic cities such as Memphis and Thebes [1]

Because Bey Citadel in Alexandria is one of the most important castles on the Mediterranean coast were interested in the sultans and rulers of Egypt over the historical eras.

During the Mamluk period, Sultan Qansuh al-Ghuri took great interest in this fort and increased the strength of its garrison and shipped with weapons and materiel. North Coast.

As the Ottoman Empire weakened, the fortress began to lose its strategic and defensive importance due to its weak garrison.Then the French campaign against Egypt led by Napoleon Bonaparte seized it and the city of Alexandria in 1798, which led to its seizure, including the rest of Egypt.When Muhammad Ali Pasha took over Egypt He worked to fortify Egypt, especially its northern coasts, he renovated the walls of the castle and added some works to suit the defensive development of the nineteenth century was to strengthen its walls and renovate its buildings and provide it with coastal guns in addition to building many Ataiwabi and forts that spread along the northern coast of Egypt.

When the revolution of Ahmed Orabi in 1882, which was the result of striking the city of Alexandria on July 11, 1882 AD and then the British occupation of Egypt was sabotaged Qaitbay Castle and caused cracks, has remained in this case until the Commission on the conservation of Arab antiquities in 1904 He made many reforms and carried out a project to make renovations based on the studies carried out by the French campaign scientists published in the book Description of Egypt and also by the traveler Cassius in his book in 1799.