Babylon Fortress

The Roman stronghold whose massive round towers became the seed from which Cairo grew.

Guarding the junction of the Nile and an ancient canal, the fortress was rebuilt on a grand scale by the emperors Trajan and later Diocletian around 300 AD. Its surviving bastions enclose the churches of Coptic Cairo, and it marked the strategic site the Arab general Amr ibn al-As chose when founding Fustat in 641.