The Royal Jewelry Museum in Alexandria
About the Museum
The Royal Jewelry Museum, located in the neighborhood of Zizenia in the city of Alexandria is one of the largest museums in Egypt with a surface area of around 4185 meters.
Moreover, the Royal Jewelry Museum hosts the most valuable displays including the jewelry and the ornaments that the queens and the princesses of the last royal family of Egypt have wore for a considerable period of time.
The History of the Royal Jewelry Museum
The building of the museum itself is truly marvelous as the museum is housed in the palace of Princess Fatema El Zahraa, which is considered to be a rare piece of architectural art that was constructed in the 19th century.
Same of the displays of the Royal Jewelry Museum go back to the period when Mohamed Ali Pasha became the Khedive of Egypt in 1805 and then he took control of the country making it independent from the Ottoman rule and established a dynasty that ruled Egypt for 147 years.
The grandson of Mohamed Ali, the Khedive Ismail, who ruled from 1863 till 1879, wanted to make Egypt part of the modernity of Europe. This is why Khedive Ismail added electric lamps to the street of Egypt, dug the Suez Canal, and had many modern buildings and different structures constructed in Egypt.
Moreover, the Khedive Ismail hired the most skillful Egyptian and foreign artists to create the golden jewelry of the royal family and the antiques that used to decorate their houses and palaces. This is the main reason why most of the displays of the Royal Jewelry Museum date back to his ruling period.
After the Egyptian revolution of the year 1952, all the royal jewelry were expropriated and remained in the governmental stores for a long period of time.
Afterwards, a reported that was formed by the General Administration of Expropriated Money recommended that these jewelries should be used to establish a museum that host these Egyptian treasures and display them to the whole world.
The Palace of Fatema El Zahraa
The committee that was specified to establish the Royal Jewelry Museum was attracted to the Palace of Princess Fatema El Zahraa, the daughter of Prince Haidar Fadel, the son of Prince Mustafa Fadel, the brother of Khedive Ismail.
The palace of Princess Fatema El Zahraa was constructed in the period between 1919 and 1923.
This palace is considered to be a piece of European architectural art in itself as it was built by French, Italian, and Belgium architects and artists. Furthermore, the palace was erected following the school of Michael Angelo using the calm style of coloring and decorations.
The Palace of Fatema Al Zahraa, which was constructed over a surface area of 4185 square meters, consists of two large suits.The Eastern Suit has two halls and a gallery with a bronze statue of a boy in the center of it. The walls of this suit have rich colored windows decorations all over it. The Western Suit consists of two floors; each has four large halls with three bathrooms that were coated with decorative colored ceramics.
An elegant foyer connects between the two suits of the palace and it is featured with ten glass frames in the shape of ten doors with drawings representing European historical scenes and legendary stories like Romeo and Juliet.
The windows of the Palace of Fatema Al Zahraa were decorated with colored glass and the grounds of the palace were coated with the finest types of wood that were imported from Turkey and other European countries.
The Palace of Fatema Al Zahraa was the perfect choice to host the valuable displays of the Museum of Royal Jewelry.
The Egyptian Government, after the revolution of the year 1952, has taken the ownership of palace from Princess Fatema Al Zahraa and it was transformed to become the lounge of the president of Egypt before it was opened as the Royal Jewelry Museum.
The Displays of the Royal Jewelry Museum
The Royal Jewelry Museum has more than 11 thousand displays that include the collection of Prince Mohamed Ali Tawfik that consists of 12 cups that were made out of bronze and gold, 2753 lobes of precious stones and diamonds, and a money bag made out of gold and other valuable precious stones.
Moreover, the priceless collection of Prince Mohamed Ali Tawfik has the marvelous Sultan pocket watch that was made out of pure gold and precious stones and a number of glass cups that are decorated with 977 lobes of diamonds.
The Royal Jewelry Museum also displays the collection that dates back to the ruling period of Said Pasha that consists of some golden clocks and watches, Turkish, Egyptian, and European insignias decorated with gold and diamonds, and 4000 Roman, Persian, Byzantine, and Coptic coins.
Among the most impressive exhibits of the museum is the snuffing box of Mohamed Ali, the founder of the royal family in Egypt, and it is ornamented with diamonds and gold, his set of chess, and his monumental sword that was created in the shape of a snake and it was decorated with 600 diamonds gathered from the collections of many princesses of the Royal family.
The walls of the Royal Family Museum have some magnificent painted portraits of Khedive Ismail, is wives, sons, and daughters that were put in pure golden frames.
The Collection of King Farouk
The collection of King Farouk is featured with the extensive use of diamonds. The first piece of this collection was the sistrum that he used when he was a baby to call his servants. This sistrum was made in the shape of a royal crown made out of palatine, diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and small pieces of gold.
The belongings of King Farouk, put on display in the Royal Jewelry Museum in Alexandria, also contain his personal stick that was made of ebony and gold and a magnificent set of cups that were decorated with gold and sapphire, with each cup having 229 pieces of sapphire and 29 pieces of diamonds.
A whole section in the Royal Jewelry Museum was specified to display the gifts that were given to King Farouk. This collection includes the tea set that was given to the king and his wife, Queen Farida, on their wedding day by the Pashas of Egypt. This is in addition to a plate made out of agate that was given to King Farouk by the Czar of Russia.
The Belongings of the Queens of Egypt
One of the most startling displays in the Royal Jewelry Museum is the crown of Queen Shwikar, which is one of the largest and most beautiful crowns of the members of the royal family in Egypt.
There is also the hall of the belongings of Queen Farida, the wife of King Farouk that exhibits her crown that was made out of gold and palatine and ornamented by 1506 pieces of diamonds. This is besides a large collection of diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and corals.
The collection of princess Fawzeya, the sister of King Farouk and the wife of the Shah of Iran, Mohamed Reda Balhawy, contains a palatine ring where the name of the princess was carved and a belt that was ornamented by 240 pieces of diamonds.
The museum includes many other displays that include a large royal clock decorated with diamonds and has the shape of an elephant made out of ivory and sapphire.
The Royal Jewelry Museum in Alexandria displays many golden and palatine chest pins and a large number of the personal belongings of the royal family members of Egypt.
A section of the museum is dedicated to the antiques and gifts that were given to the Royal family that include the famous plate of Queen Eugenie that was given to Khedive Ismail in the opening of the Suez Canal and its estimated price is around 15 million pounds as it was ornamented with diamonds, sapphires, and emerald.
The reopening of the Royal Jewelry Museum
The Royal Jewelry Museum has undergone a long restoration and renovation period for a long period of time it was reopened in the year 2010. Many services and facilities were added to the museum like central air conditioning, a library, a café, a seminar hall, and a restoration laboratory. Moreover, the security alarm system of the museum to protect the museum against thrifts, fire, and surveillance cameras.
The Ministry of Cultural Affairs in Egypt has announced that the restoration and renovation of the Museum of Royal Jewelry Museum has cost more than nine million dollars to become one of the most fabulous museums in Egypt.
In April 2010 and after a long period when the museum was closed, Suzanne Mubarak, has officially reopened the museum for public visits to give Alexandria more and more elegance with the startling priceless collection of jewelry put on display on the Royal Jewelry Museum.
HOURS OF OPERATION:
Open daily 9 AM-4 PM
LOCATION:
27 Sharia Ahmed Yehia Basha, Glymm, Alexandria
DIRECTIONS::
BY TRAM: Tram 2 to Qasr as-Safa stop and look for large white villa
BY TAXI: ask for "met-haf al-megawharat al-melekiya"
FACILITIES:: cafeteria, bookstore
NO FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY ALLOWED.
The museum is wheelchair accessible.
CONTACT INFO : Phone: (03) 586 8348
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