About Babylon Fortress - حصن بابليون

Babylon, according to historians, was originally the name of a capital city of a neighboring country known as Babylon, but another probability refers the name to the ancient Pr-Hapi-n-Iwnw ( Nile House of Heliopolis ) that was the deity's dwellings in Heliopolis city, Habi was the divinity of the Nile,it was the fall of Babylon on April 9, 641, following a siege lasting more than six months, that signaled the fall of Egypt to the Arabs under 'Amr ibn al-'Aas, even more so the actual fall of Alexandria, the capital of Egypt at that time. After the archaic city of Fustat was founded just outside the fortress by the Arabs, the fortress continued to be called Babylon for the next century, and in papyrus documents of the period, the names of Fustat and Babylon were used interchangeably. The Arabic place-name was Qasr al-Sham, meaning "Fortress of the Candle", which the area is still called today as the towers of the fort were adorned with illuminated candles at the beginning of every month, thus people could follow the movement of the sun from one tower to another. Six Coptic churches, a convent, and the Coptic Museum are actually within the enclosure of the fortress.