Mosque of Ibn Tulun

Mosque of Ibn Tulun tickets and tours: which one to book

No ticket is needed to enter the Mosque of Ibn Tulun. It is an active mosque, open to visitors outside prayer times, and the only costs are a small tip for the man who looks after shoes or ties on cloth shoe covers at the door, and perhaps another to the guardian who opens the minaret. The adjoining Gayer-Anderson Museum, housed in two Ottoman-era houses built against the mosque wall, has its own ticket. The bookable option is a half-day tour of Cairo's royal and Islamic heritage that combines the mosque with Manial Palace, the early twentieth-century residence of Prince Mohammed Ali on Roda Island.

The price normally includes hotel pick-up in an air-conditioned car, an Egyptologist or local guide and entry fees, which makes it useful for first-time visitors who would rather not deal with Cairo traffic and taxis. Independent travellers can take a taxi or ride-hailing car to the Sayyida Zaynab district; the mosque is about 1.5 km west of the Citadel, and many people walk there from the Sultan Hassan and Al-Rifai mosques in 15 to 20 minutes through the old streets. Many private Islamic Cairo day tours also include it alongside the Citadel and Sultan Hassan, so if you are already booking a guide for the area, check that this mosque is on the route.

Visiting Mosque of Ibn Tulun: what to see and how to behave

Ahmad ibn Tulun, the governor who made Egypt practically independent of the Abbasid caliphs in Baghdad, built this mosque between 876 and 879 as the main mosque of his new capital. Everything else of that city was razed in 905, but the mosque survived, and it is now the oldest mosque in Egypt that keeps its original form. It is part of the UNESCO site of Historic Cairo. Its scale and simplicity are what strike you first. A vast square courtyard is framed on all sides by arcades of pointed arches carried on thick brick piers, with the deepest arcades on the side facing Mecca forming the prayer hall. The building is of brick covered in plaster, and the arches are edged with carved stucco bands of vine and geometric patterns;

along the top of the outer walls runs a fringe of openwork crenellations. In the prayer hall, look for the long wooden frieze carrying Quranic verses, the main mihrab, and several later flat stucco mihrabs, while in the centre of the court stands a domed fountain added by the Mamluk sultan Lajin, who restored the mosque in 1296. The highlight is the minaret, about 40 m high, which stands in the outer enclosure and is climbed by an external spiral staircase, a form borrowed from the great mosque of Samarra in Iraq. From the top the view takes in the domes and minarets of old Cairo, the Citadel and, on a clear day, the pyramids of Giza. Stay out of the prayer hall during prayers, keep voices low and ask before photographing people.

Mosque of Ibn Tulun: opening hours, ceremonies and the best time to go

The mosque opens to visitors daily from morning until late afternoon, typically from about 8 or 9 am to 4 or 5 pm; it closes to sightseers during the five daily prayers and is best avoided around Friday noon prayers. Hours can change during Ramadan, so check locally. Mid-morning or late afternoon gives the best light in the courtyard, when the arches throw long shadows across the stone. Winter, from November to March, is the most comfortable season;

in summer the open court becomes very hot by midday, and the minaret climb is best done early. Ramadan evenings bring a special atmosphere to the neighbourhood, though tourist access is more limited. The site is rarely crowded at any time of year. Allow an hour for the mosque and the minaret, and another hour for the Gayer-Anderson Museum next door. Combine it with the Sultan Hassan and Al-Rifai mosques and the Citadel of Saladin for a full day of Islamic Cairo, or with the old Khan el-Khalili bazaar and Al-Muizz Street further north.