The Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Hassan is an essential Mamluk architecture situated near the Citadel of Saladin specifically in Salah El Din square. The construction of the mosque started around 1356 AD and lasted until approximately 1363 AD. At this time the mosque was considered remarkable, not only in Cairo but in the whole Islamic world, for its fantastic size and inventive architectural components.
The founder of this massive construction was Sultan Hassan measuring about 26,000 square feet. It was designed to include religious schools (Madrassa) containing educational facilities for each of the four main Sunni sects of Islam: Shafi’i, Maliki, Hanafi and Hanbali
The first plan of the mosque was to have four minarets, but only three were ever constructed. One of them was built and collapsed before they finish the others and unfortunately three hundred people were killed. Another minaret toppled, then the weakened dome collapsed. Sultan Hassan was murdered two years before completion of the mosque.
