The Mosque of Al-Hussein is located near the Khan El-Khalili bazaar and nearby Al-Azhar, specifically in an area called Al-Hussein. This mosque was built by the Fatimids and was named after the grandson of prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him), Al-Hussein ibn Ali. It is rumored that the head of Al-Hussein is buried in the mosque.

The story that explains how Al-Hussein’s head was buried in the mosque says that after Al-Hussein was killed, his head was separated from his body by his enemies and sent it to their leader, Yazid ibn Muawiyah, in Damascus. The head was then buried in Ashkelon, but in 1153, over fears of the disrespect and possible traitorous activity that might occur to the casket, the Fatimids moved the casket to Cairo, where it still lies today in Al-Hussein mosque.

The mosque of Al-Hussein was built in 1154. Of the original Fatimid structure, only a gate on the southern side of the mosque, called Bab Al-Akhdar (The Green Gate) remains today. The Ayyubids added a minaret with an arabesque aesthetic pattern a few years after the original construction of the mosque. In 1874, Khedive Ismail reconstructed the mosque of Al-Hussein in an Italian Gothic inspired style and added Ottoman style minarets. A darih (an ornate enclosing a grave) was installed in the mosque in 1965, and a door on the entrance to a crypt inside the mosque was also installed a few years later. The door, which is laden in gold and silver, is called Bab al-Mukhallafat al-Nabawiyya