This beautiful palace located in El Manial is one of the classiest most stunning places which could ever visit. Manial Palace built for Prince Mohammad Ali between 1899 and 1929. The palace was given to the Egyptian nation in 1955. Prince Muhammad Ali is the first cousin of King Faruq and the younger brother of Khepe Abbas II Hilmi.
Hossam Zidan, a researcher in Islamic and Coptic archeology, explained that Prince Mohammed Ali palace in Manial represents a museum of all kinds of Islamic art. Mohammed Ali ordered to construct this palace to tell the Islamic arts and protect it from extinction. it includes Fatimid, Mamluk, Ottoman, Andalusian, Persian and Shami art.
Zidan, refered to that the palace included many of the ceramic tile which were decorated as a arts revival of the Mamluk era, where the starry Mamluk dishes are clear and elegantand.
Elements of Mameluke architecture can be seen in the palace’s saray domestic spaces, especially in the main gate as well in its use of mashrabiya and the glass-embedded windows that overlook an Andalusian-style fountain. The palace’s mosque is built in the Moroccan style.
The complex consists of six structures, these structures is a museum which include Faruq’s hunting trophies, the prince’s residence and furnishings.There are also gardens that have beautiful plants and flowers that are worth seeing.
The palace also includes a collection of manuscripts, carpets, textiles, brass work and crystal. Items that can be seen here are a table made of elephant ears and a 1000-piece silver service and a hotel has been built that called Meridian Hotel. The palace is also home to a rare collection of antiques that the prince collected from different parts of the world or picked out of the rubble of collapsing Mameluke and Ottoman houses.
The palace’s decorated by plaster and wooden ceilings with intrinsic designs and works of art from which hung giant Turkish and glass mishkas chandeliers.
After the prince completed the palace and lived there, he gave it to the Egypt's people and recommended that it be transformed into a museum after his death.Then, the state turned it into a museum. The palace contained the Arabic calligraphy and other types of lines which filled the palace walls and alleys.
The palace is surrounded by gardens with a rare collection of trees and plants and it contains a 500 year old tree which dates back to the Mamluk period. The tree was located within the land purchased by the prince to build his palace, and has remained to witness the Egypt greatness through the ages.
Translated by Ahmed Yasser
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