Egypt P-82—CLEOPATRA—PYRAMID—20 Pounds 2023-2025 UNC—Polymer—Mosque

Color: Dark green print on multishade cyan.

Front: The Great Mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha or Alabaster Mosque is a mosque on the summit of the Citadel of Cairo and commissioned in 1830. Ottoman style, largest built in the first half of the 19th century, is, with its animated silhouette and twin minarets, the most visible mosque in Cairo. Built in memory of Tusun Pasha, Muhammad Ali's oldest son, who died in 1816.

Window: Transparent with image of mosque and value in Arabic script.

Back: Color: Dark green print on multishade cyan and yellow. Queen Cleopatra, Great Pyramid of Giza, Pharaoh Ramesses II in war chariot, papyrus.

Muhammad Ali Pasha (1769–1849)

Founder of modern Egypt and its first true ruler after the Ottoman era, Muhammad Ali Pasha transformed a decaying province into a centralized, militarized state, introducing European-style administration, industry, and a powerful army and navy. To symbolize his new dynasty and Egypt’s renewed strength, he built the monumental Mosque of Muhammad Ali in the Cairo Citadel (completed 1848), dedicated to his beloved son Tusun Pasha. Dominating the skyline with its Ottoman-inspired domes and twin minarets, it proclaimed Egypt’s re-emergence as a regional power under a locally rooted, reforming ruler.

Ramesses II (c. 1303–1213 BCE)

One of the greatest pharaohs of the New Kingdom, Ramesses II ruled for 66 years, waged legendary campaigns against the Hittites, and concluded the world’s earliest known peace treaty after the Battle of Kadesh. A master of monumental self-presentation, he covered Egypt with colossal statues and temples, most famously Abu Simbel, carved directly into the Nubian cliffs to project divine kingship and imperial reach. His reign marked the zenith of pharaonic power, stability, and architectural grandeur.

Cleopatra VII (69–30 BCE)

The last active ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt, Cleopatra VII was a highly educated, multilingual queen who sought to preserve Egypt’s independence in the age of Roman expansion. Through her political and personal alliances with Julius Caesarand later Mark Antony, she positioned herself as both Hellenistic monarch and living embodiment of the goddess Isis. Her defeat by Octavian and her dramatic death in 30 BCE ended three centuries of Greek rule and ushered Egypt into the Roman world, closing the final chapter of the pharaohs.