El-Ablaq palace is the most famous of El-Nasir Muhammad palaces at the Citadel, it had four floor arranged in a row.This palace was composed of two halls facing each other between a huge dome covered with green tiles and supported by a number of columns. This palace was modeled after the Ablaq Palace that Mamluk ruler Baibars constructed in Damascus in 1264.
The palace was used for receptions; the walls inside were decorated with marble and gold mosaic, detailed in mother-of-pearl and colored paste. The floors were made of marble , ceiling made of gilt with lapis lazuli and the windows were filled with colored glass.
El- Ablaq Palace
This technique is a feature of Islamic architecture; El- ablaq decorative technique is a derivative from the ancient Byzantine Empire whose architecture used alternate sequential runs of light colored ashlar stone and darker colored orange brick.
The west entrance is preceded by four stairs flanked on the east and west by two stone mastabas. Around the top of the lintel, there is a stone course composed of interlocking voussoirs of a black-grey colour placed alternately around the entrance and that portal leads to the vestibule and a staircase that terminates in a rectangular-shaped open courtyard and which probably provided access to the first level.
decorative from ancient Byzantine Empire
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