An unmissable landmark, the Citadel near Islamic Cairo was home to Egypt's rulers for 700 years. With great city views - and breeze - the huge fortress contains mosques, palaces and museums including the white marble Mohammed Ali Mosque. This landmark was initially used for its views of the city, and was only fortified between 1176 and 1183 AD by Saladin to protect it from the Crusaders. Due to its strategic position, over the years the Citadel has been partly destroyed and modified by almost every invader. However, much of what can be seen today reflects the influence of the Ottoman empire, who controlled Egypt in one way or another between 1517 and the early 20th century. Throughout the years the Ottomans rebuilt the wall that separates the northern and southern enclosures, as well as the Bab al-Azab, the fortified gate located opposite the Akhur Mosque. They also built the 25-metre Burg al-Muqattam tower rising above the entrance - the tallest tower of this centuries-old bastion. In 1805 Ottoman Muhammad Ali Pasha, one of the great builders of Modern Egypt, made further changes to the entire complex and ordered the construction of his Mohammed Ali Mosque, today Cairo's most dramatic feature. Coptic Museum More than an archive of Coptic history, the Coptic Museum offers a case study in the formative years of a major religion that grew, intermingled, and sometimes borrowed from that of an ancient religion that it was replacing. Coptic was the name given by 16th and 17th-century Europeans to the Christian minority in Egypt, and to their language, the latest phase in the history of the ancient Egyptian language. Following suggestions at the end of the 19th century, in 1914 the Coptic Museum was founded by Marcus Simaika (1864-1944), a wealthy Copt and leading figure in encouraging Coptic interest in the Coptic past. The Church provided the land for the museum, in Old Cairo, against the walls of the ancient Roman fortress, as well as many of the exhibits. With most of the ancient churches of Egypt destroyed or rebuilt, the Coptic Museum is the only chance to see this part of both Egypt's and Christianity's history. It houses the world's most important examples of Coptic art. Many artefacts show how old representation techniques were used by the first Christians. Examples of this is how the ankh-symbol (like a cross with a loop on top) was reworked into a Christian cross, how Mary with a sucking infant Jesus was shaped after the prototype of Isis breastfeeding Horus and how crosses and Horus hawks were put together on a basket-weave capital. The most important part of the museum is probably the collection of scripts, which include papyrus sheets of the Gnostic gospels found at Nag Hammadi in 1945, and the Coptic Psalter, the oldest preserved codex in the world.