Citadel Prison

Prisons existed inside Cairo Citadel in several historical periods because the fortress functioned as a major military and political center. The current prison museum dates to the reign of Khedive Ismail, after he moved the seat of government to Abdeen Palace in 1874, and it was later expanded under Khedive Tawfiq. After the 1952 Revolution, the Military Police took over the facility. The prison became associated with the detention of prominent political and public figures during the twentieth century and was later converted into a museum. According to the Ministry, the surviving space includes a passage roughly 50 metres long with cells divided into eastern and western sectors, together with rooms interpreted through wax-figure displays. This makes the site a very different type of experience from the mosques and palaces elsewhere in the Citadel. The Ministry describes the present prison museum as a later Citadel institution that expanded after Khedive Ismail moved the government seat to Abdeen Palace in 1874. It also records the long central passage and the division of cells into eastern and western sectors. For visitors, this makes the prison an unusually direct way to understand the Citadel as a functioning state and military complex, not simply a group of historic monuments.