Egyptian ruler ”Mohamed Ali” choosed Shubra, as the site of his palace. He paid attention to the empty lands that run parallel to the Nile to the north of the city and away from the Cairo center.
Mohamed Ali Palace
The first structure that was constructed in the palace complex of Mohamed Ali in Shubra is a small villa built as a residence. It has a number of wooden buildings that served as offices for the employees and places for guards to stay.
Unfortunately, the whole structure was actually removed during the reign of ”King Farouk” in the 1930s to make way for the new Cairo-Alexandria Agricultural Road.
oil paintings and the ottoman baroque style of architecture
This palace includes numerous marble columns and it is richly decorated with drawings and portraits of the Egyptian military fleet, and some Roman and Greek thinkers and philosophers.
The ceiling of this gallery has marvelous oil paintings and the ottoman baroque style of architecture that was quite dominant in Turkey at the time of the construction of the palace.
Among the most famous palaces in Istanbul which Mohamed Ali copied many architectural features from in his palace in Shubra is ”Topkapi” Palace in Istanbul, which was the seat of the Ottoman Empire for a very long period of time.
European and Ottoman architecture
The painted ceilings are a beautifully executed which mixes European and Ottoman architecture. The second room shown to visitors include an empty room in the far corner of the building with the names of Mohamed Ali, his wives and sons painted skillfully on the ceiling as well as the dining room, where stately paintings of the pyramids, bowls of fruit and game birds were designed to whet guests’ appetites.
The waterwheel tower is the oldest surviving building in the Palace . It was constructed in 1811.The tower is located 130 meters east of the ”Fountain Villa” in the middle of the fruits and vegetable gardens. The gardens were separated from the villa by a fence of which some portions still remain today.
The palace is blended with European and Ottoman architecture
The architecture of Mohamed Ali Palace was designed following a new style that was not known in Egypt at the time. The wide piece of land that was used to construct the palace allowed for beautiful gardens as well a style that was imported from Turkey, especially from the palaces erected on the shores of the Bosporus Strait and the Marmara Sea in the time of the Ottomans.
”Fountain Villa” is rather unique in Egypt. It consists of a central block with the sections of the whole building surrounding it. This block consists of a large water basin that is 61 meters long, 45 meters wide.
This ”basin” is coated with wonderful white marble all over and has a fountain situated in the middle of the basin whose design is based upon statues of crocodiles with the water coming out of their mouths as well as fish designs carved along its sides. In the middle of each fountain, there is a notable statue of a lion standing on his back feet with water coming out of its mouth.
”Fountain Villa
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