Prince Muhammad Ali’s palace
Prince Manial Palace or the Palace of Manial or Mohammed Ali Palace Museum Manial or Palace Museum Manial
It is one of the palaces of the royal era in Egypt with a special architectural character . Start building the palace in 1901 , and located on the island of Manial El Roda in Cairo on an area of 61711 m ² of which 5000 meters represent buildings space . The palace is a unique architectural masterpiece, as it includes various Islamic arts styles between Fatimi, Mamluk, Ottoman, Andalusian, Persian and Shami, and the palace includes three companies : residence palaces, reception palaces, and throne palaces, in addition to the mosque, the private museum, the hunting museum, and the clock tower, and surrounds It has a wall in the style of the walls of medieval forts, while its interior surrounds gardens containing a rare collection of trees and plants, and the palace is now used as a museum .
The palace belonged to Prince Muhammad Ali, the second son of Khedive Tawfiq , and brother of Khedive Abbas Abbas Hilmi II . And who served as crown prince three times, as he was one of the three guardians of the throne between the death of King Fouad I and his cousin King Farouk assuming his constitutional powers upon completing the legal age . The land of the palace was chosen by Prince Muhammad Ali himself, and at the beginning he established the Residence Sarayat and then completed the rest of the Saraya. The Prince put engineering and decorative designs and supervised the construction, while the implementation was carried out by the teacher Muhammed Afifi. He recommended that the Prince turn the palace after his death into a museum .
Creator :
The originator of the palace is the prince Muhammad Ali The second son Khedive Tawfiq Son Khedive Ismail , whose mother is Princess Amina Najiba Elhami Karima Ibrahim Elhami Pasha Ibn Abbas I , and his brothers and sisters understand Khedive Abbas Hilmi II , Princess Nazli Hanem, Princess Khadija Hanim, Princess Grace God. Prince Muhammad Ali was born in 9 Nov 1875M/ 11Shawwal 1292E In Cairo He grew up with a lover of science, so he entered the upper school in Abdeen to harvest elementary sciences, in a year 1884 He went to Europe to take a high science degree and entered the Hyksos High School Switzerland Then he entered the Terzianum School Austria On the orders of his father to receive military science. He returned to Egypt after the death of his father a year 1892 .Since he was a young man, he was witnessed by wisdom and the wisdom of the mind, and showed his inclination to know and love literature and arts, especially Islamic.
Prince filled Muhammad Ali The position of crown prince three times, the first in the reign of his brother Khedive Abbas Hilmi II Even the Khedive provided his son Prince Muhammad Abd al-Moneim , and after the deposition of Abbas Hilmi II, the British authorities asked Prince Muhammad Ali to leave Egypt and reside abroad, so they settled in Monterrey Switzerland Until he agreed Sultan Ahmed Fouad I On his return to Egypt, he was subsequently appointed as crown prince for the second time until the Sultan had given his son Prince Farouk , then he was chosen as one of the three guardians of the throne in the period between death King Ahmed Fouad I He took his cousin king Farouq His constitutional powers upon completing the legal age , then he was appointed crown prince for the third and last time during the reign of King Farouk until the king had given his son Prince Ahmed Fouad II.
And Prince Muhammad Ali moved next to his Lord in 17 March 1954 in a Lausanne Switzerland At the age of eighty years, and it was from his will to be buried in Egypt, he was buried in the tombs of the royal family to study “Avandina Dome“
He chose the land of the palace, Prince Muhammad Ali himself, in order for him to reside on his palace, and at the beginning he established the residence palace and then completed the rest of the companies, and the prince put engineering and decorative designs, and supervised all implementation steps, while the implementation was carried out by the teacher Muhammad Afifi.
This is inferred from the phrase engraved at the entrance to the palace and its text: «Muhammad Ali Palace by Manial, this palace was established by the Prince Muhammad Ali The son of the forgiven Muhammad Tawfiq , reviving and honoring Islamic arts, he invented building engineering and was decorated by His Highness the Emir and was executed by the teacher Muhammed Afifi, and this was done in 1348 AH .
History of the palace :
The ownership of the land on which the palace was located transferred between members of the royal family and foreign dignitaries in Egypt, and it was the property of Prince Mustafa Fadel Pasha and Prince Ahmed Rifaat Pasha, then its ownership was transferred to Khedive Ismail Then Mr. Aloy Marie Joseph then Duke Edmond, and in general 1888 Duke Edmond ceded his property to a French national in Egypt called Jean-Claude Erchard, and in 1902 The Prince bought it Muhammad Ali , and began building his general palace 1901 During the royal era, Prince Muhammad Ali held many parties and meetings in the palace, which were called by the top statesmen pashas and cries of ministers, dignitaries, writers and journalists., The prince recommended that after his death the palace be a museum that would enjoy the beauty of its visiting artists, After the 1952 revolution and the nationalization of the property of the family of Muhammad Ali Pasha, the palace was entrusted with managing the recovered funds Which submitted its contents in general 1964 To the Egyptian Company for Tourism and Hotels, which in turn constructed a hotel called ” Manial Palace Hotel or Manial Palace Hotel ” in the Palace Garden, and it was a two-storey granular wood chalets with 180 double rooms . With the issuance of the business sector Law No. 203 of 1991enter the hotel within the Holding Company for Housing, Tourism and hotel property and cinema, creating a conflict between money management and recovered and the Holding Company completed the issuance of Prime Minister of the decision to hand over palace garden to manage the museum and the demolition of wooden chalets that distort the beauty of the palace.
Palace design :
The palace is located in the north of Al-Rawdha Island, on a branch overlooking a small branch of the Nile River in front of Al-Aini Palace. The total area of the palace is about 61711 square meters, of which 5,000 meters represent the area of buildings, including buildings, and the rest of the space is allocated to gardens and internal roads. The value of the palace stems from its being a unique building that includes various Islamic arts styles between Fatimi, Mamluk, Ottoman, Andalusian, Persian and Shami, and the palace includes three companies: residence palaces, reception palaces, and throne serail, in addition to the mosque, the private museum, the hunting museum, and the clock tower, It is surrounded by a wall modeled on the walls of medieval forts.
Saray reception: It was intended to receive official guests, and it contained rare antiques, including carpets, furniture and decorated Arab tables. The palace consists of two floors. The first contains the honor room to receive official figures, senior statesmen and ambassadors, and the reception hall for senior worshipers with the prince in his mosque in the palace, and the upper upper includes two large halls designed One of them is in the Moroccan style, where its walls were covered with mirrors and faience tiles, while the other hall was designed in the Levantine style, where the walls were covered with the ceiling with wood with colorful geometric and floral motifs executed alongside Quranic writings and verses of poetry.
Saray Residence: It is the main palace and the first buildings to be built, and was the residence of the Prince and consists of two floors connected by a delicate ladder. The first floor includes the fountain foyer, the harem room, the Shekma, the mirror room, the blue salon room, the seashell salon room, the dining room, the fireplace room, and the Prince’s office and library. The palace halls differ among themselves with regard to decorations and collectibles, from antiques and exhibits, between furniture, carpets, pictures, oil paintings, and jewelry. The serail is a museum of the types of Turkish faience tiles, and a tower overlooking the most important landmarks of Cairo and Giza is attached to it..
Throne Serail: The Serail consists of two floors, the lower one and it is called the Throne Hall, which is a large hall with a wooden crew gilded from the sofa and chairs covered with velor, and has large pictures of some of the rulers of Egypt from the family of Muhammad Ali, along with pictures of landscapes from Cairo and Giza, and the Prince received his guests in these The hall on occasions such as holidays. As for the upper floor, it consists of two halls for the winter sessions, and a rare room dedicated to the collection of Ilhami Pasha, who is the grandfather of Prince Muhammad Ali for his mother, and it is called the Aubusson Chamber because all its walls are covered with the texture of the French Aubusson..
The Golden Hall: And it is called the guardianship salon, and it was used for official celebrations, and despite being devoid of antiques, it is considered a stand-alone masterpiece because of its finely carved gilded floral and engineering motifs on its walls and ceiling. Prince Muhammad Ali moved this hall from the house of his grandfather, Ilhami Pasha, who originally built it to fit in the east, receiving Sultan Abdul Majid I, who attended to honor Ilhami Pasha after his victory over the Russian Empire in the Crimean sanctuary. And it was called the Golden Hall because of the implementation of the decorations of all its walls and ceiling in gold in the style of Ottoman Rococo and columns in the form of palm trees with an Egyptian touch.
The mosque: The mosque was built in the Ottoman style, and it is considered one of the distinguished architectural and artistic installations, and it consists of Iwan. The eastern iwan ceiling was executed in the form of small domes of yellow glass, while the western iwan is decorated with sunbeam decorations. The minbar and the mihrab are executed in gold, while the walls are covered with faience tiles on each of them writings.
clock tower: It was constructed in the style of Andalusian and Moroccan towers that were used to observe and send messages by fire at night and smoke during the day, and attached to it an hour.. He wrote the Bug of the Zodiac in Kufic script, and contains a watch of the same style as the watch installed in the front of the Misr station, but with different hands, as its watch is characterized by its hands being in the form of snakes.
Private museum: It is located on the south side of the palace and consists of fifteen halls in the middle of a courtyard with a small garden, and displays rare collections of carpets and rare Arabic manuscripts and oil paintings of some members of the family of Muhammad Ali along with landscape paintings, metal masterpieces, glass masterpieces from the crystal, and a set of writing and clothing tools Bedspreads, furniture and candlesticks.
The first hall: displays rare manuscripts, Qur’anic interpretations, and calligraphic paintings using floral and bird motifs.
The second hall : displays written tools of fine, ivory, metal, scissors and inkwells .
The third hall : a set of bedspreads and napkins display silk, and a set of old boxes inlaid with seashells .
The fourth hall : displays a group of white and fire weapons, Arab and Ottoman swords and daggers .
Fifth Hall : It is the largest hall of the museum, and it displays a group of rare carpets of different styles .
The sixth hall : It contains nine marshes containing tea cups, cups, flasks and vases .
The seventh hall : It is a small hall whose ceiling is decorated in the shape of a carpet. It displays a set of sirma fabrics and a rug designed in the form of a Turkish lira.
Hall 8 : Examples of Turkish fashions for all categories and a group of women’s belts inlaid with rubies, corals, and amber .
Hall IX : surrounding a pyramid – shaped Fteranh by private holdings Prince inlaid with diamonds and a set of gifts kings of nations .
The tenth hall : It displays sets of silverware, containers, vases, and candlesticks .
Hall Eleven : It contains a granite displaying vessels of porcelain of various shapes, sizes and models for small size rugs .
The twelfth hall : It is called the summer hall, on its southwestern wall, a group of marble heads of lions falling from the mouths of water, and the opposite wall honored him with a wall of stained glass. .
Thirteenth Hall : Displaying metallic artifacts, and on its walls are a group of sirma .
Hall XIV : Porcelain tea sets and tea sets with colorful floral designs .
Hunting Museum: The museum was added to the palace in general 1963 By choosing a long corridor next to the northern wall and turning it into a hunting museum, it displays 1180 pieces of animals, birds and mummified butterflies from the hunting holdings of King Farouk, Prince Muhammad Ali and Prince Yusef Kamal, in addition to the skeletons of camels and horses that were placed on them during the Kaaba trip during the bearing and the travel of the kiswa. From Egypt to the land of Hijaz, skulls, pods, skins, hunting tools, antiques and paintings.
the garden: It covers an area of 34 thousand meters and includes a rare group of trees and plants collected by Prince Muhammad Ali from all over the world, including the cactus group, Indian fig trees, and types of palm trees such as the royal palm with white trunks, bamboo trees, and the tree, and others..
The palace is currently an open museum of modern Islamic architecture and arts of all types and motifs, displaying various and rare holdings of Prince Muhammad Ali
And the museum is located in the heart of the city Cairo And specifically on an island Manial Al-Rawda near Aini Palace
This is a tourist airspace in one of the greatest palaces of Egypt, and follow us to meet in the upcoming tours with tourist tours to get to know the most important monuments and features of ancient Egypt .
With greetings from the Star Shine Tourism team .
