David Roberts RA
The Entrance to the Citadel of Cairo
Subscription & first edition lithographs in stock
Full plate: 228
Presented in an acid free mount
£1,000 first edition
The viewpoint is not in fact from Citizenib (modern Sayidah Zaynab) as Roberts thought, but from Tel Zaynum to the south of Cairo. The main monuments in the foreground are, from left to right, the tombs of Fatimah Khatun and of Sultan Khalil (still extant), an unidentified and now destroyed mosque or tomb, and, on the far right, the mosque of Sayidah Nafisah (since rebuilt).
In the right background is the Citadel and on the left the Madrasah of Sultan Hassan. The high viewpoint, looking down on the varied contours of the domes and minarets of the city, and the delicate pink glow with which they are suffused, make this one of Roberts most striking lithographs.