The Mosque of Muhammad Ali, aka The Alabaster Mosque was started in 1830 and took 18 years to complete. The mosque, commissioned by Pasha Muhammad Ali, was designed in the Ottoman style by architect Yussuf Bushnaq of Greece. Muhammad Ali is buried in the mosque. Alabaster is used extensively in its construction, giving the mosque it's name. No official services or sermons are held here but people do pray and one must show the same respect one shows in an active mosque.

A pretty good history of Egypt under Muhammad Ali can be found on Wikipedia. He was a visionary ruler who helped lift Egypt out of the control of foreign powers and started the last family dynasty to rule Egypt. He was also a ruthless bastard, foreign born (he was born in Greece to Albanian parents), who assassinated his rivals by the score - literally by the score (between 400 and 500 of them in a single evening). The case can be made for both descriptions. People in Egypt generally tend towards the former.