Royal Jewelry Museum in Alexandria - Egyptology

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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Museum of The Royal Carriages in Cairo - Egyptology

The Museum of The Royal Carriages in Cairo

About the Museum of Royal Carriages in Boulak

The Museum of Royal Carriages that is located in the neighborhood of Boulak in Cairo is considered to be one of the important Egyptian museums.

This museum displays the royal carriages of the family of Mohamed Ali, the founder of modern Egypt, and how he and his family members were quite fond of horses. The members of the last royal family in Egypt who ruled from the beginning of the 19th century and until the revolution of the year 1952 used to ride in these wonderful chariots in many different occasions including wedding ceremonies and in official processions.

The Establishment of the museum

The Museum of Royal Carriages is located in the 26th of July Street, just beside the historical mosque of Abu El Ellah, constructed in the middle of the 16th century.

The museum was established during the ruling period of Khedive Ismail in the last quarter of the 20th century, who was the first one to think of founding a special building to host the royal carriages and horses.

This building was called the "Department of the Khedive Carriages" when it was first established and then the name was modified to become the "Management of the Royal Stables" which was one of the three managements that used to follow the instructions of the "Department of the Khedive Carriages".

With many different periods of time passing by, the building was transformed to become the "Museum of Royal Carriages" because it used to host the carriages, horses, and even their ornaments that used to belong to the members of the royal family in Egypt.

The museum also hosted the horses of the Khedive and other horses that were owned by the other royal family members. Experts and doctors and veterinarian were brought from all over the world to take care of the horses. This is besides the skillful workers who used to maintain and restore the royal carriages.

The "Department of the Khedive Carriages" didn't only manage the horse carriages of the Khedive and his family, but also used to take care of the automobiles of the family that used to own valuable expensive cars from different world class brands like Citroen, Ford, and Cadillac.

In the past the building of the museum used to consist of different sections; the first was for the horse carriages, the second was for the horses stable, the third was a veterinarian clinic, the forth was a complete ambulance office, and the last section was specified for the workers to live and sleep.

In 1969, the governorate of Cairo took around three quarters of the surface area of the Museum of Royal Carriages and transformed it into a garage. Afterwards in 1978, some of the most remarkable carriages and uniforms were chosen to be put on display and the rest of the items were stored in special warehouses.

The museum used to have a large open courtyard and this was where the royal carriages were prepared before the khedive or any of his family members ride in any of them.

The description of the museum

The façade of the Museum of Royal Carriages consists of architectural portraits in the shape of horses' heads and it was more than 15 meters high forming a notable scene in one of the less touristic neighborhoods of Cairo.

The museum hosts vertical geometrical trims that are remarkable and wonderful models of artificial horses that were used to explain the muscular anatomy of the horse.

The Museum of Royal Carriages exhibits around 78 historically valuable royal carriages. 22 carriages of this collection were gifts that were presented to the rulers of Egypt since the reign of Khedive Ismail and until the ruling period of King Farouk by the kings and emperors of Europe.

Among the most important carriages that were presented to the rulers of Egypt as gifts is the carriage that was given by Napoleon III and the Queen Eugene to the Khedive Ismail in the ceremony of the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Khedive Ismail has used this royal carriage during his wedding ceremony.

Another notable example of this wonderful collection of carriages is the Cuban carriage that was used by the Queen and other family members during the opening conference of the parliament.

During the reign of King Fouad, who ruled Egypt from 1917 till 1922, the carriages were used to transfer the ambassadors and the consuls of foreign countries during their journey in Egypt.

Moreover, the royal carriage that was given to Khedive Ismail as a gift from the Queen Eugene was used to transfer the kings, queens, and emperors of Europe and other nations during their trips in Egypt.

The Museum of Royal Carriages also has 7 galleries and 20 glass cupboards to preserve and display different types of uniforms that were used in royal protocols, leather outfits, the ornaments that the horses used to wear, oil colored paintings, and a large collection of geometrical drawings that illustrate the structural formations of carriages. This is besides 8 models of human beings made out of plaster to show the outfits and uniforms.

The Museum will host 13 of the total number of royal carriages. This is besides thousands of other items that the people working with the carriages used to wear and use.

The sections of the Museum of Royal Carriages

The administration of the museum has given special attention to the organization of the displays in order to highlight how important were the carriages and the horses in official royal processions, picnics, funerary, and wedding ceremonies.

The museum will be exhibiting all the outfits, gadgets, and tools that the workers in the royal stables used. This besides a large number of outfits, uniforms, and horses saddles that are put on display

Furthermore, there will be a specific section for the saddles and the ornaments of the horses. There will be many historical lamps that were used to light the royal stables as well and the whips that were used to tame the horses.

Another section of the Museum of Royal Carriages will be dedicated to the uniforms of the people who used to work in the royal stables and the drivers of the carriages. Some of these uniforms are quite remarkable with a lot of decorations and wonderful colors.

The museum will also contain an explanation of how the workers took care of the royal carriages and the horses in the stables, a description of the royal processions, the carriages, how were they ornamented, and many different photos of various scenes from the royal stables.

There will be an introductory hall for the visitors displaying and illustrating the history of the museum. Afterwards, the guests will enter inside the major hall of the museum that hosts two wonderful royal carriages and some other carriages that used to belong to princesses and queens.

The second floor of the Museum of Royal Carriages will display the outfits and accessories. There will also be a special section in the second floor of the museum which will be dedicated to the children to simply explain to them the idea around the establishment of the museum.

This section will contain some of the kids' carriages that small horses used to move. Maybe in the future, the children who will visit the museum will be able to ride in some of the carriages that used to belong to the children of the last royal family of Egypt.

A whole section of the museum will be dedicated to the carriages that were given to Khedive Farouk as gifts from European kings and emperors. The most notable carriage in this section is a wonderful carriage that was ornamented with special white bamboo and it was brought to King Farouk from Hungary in 1934

Another section of the museum will display temporary exhibits that would change from time to time. This will display the carriages and the items that were used in certain occasions like wedding ceremonies.

The Restoration of the Museum of Royal Carriages

The restoration work of the Museum of Royal Carriages has started in the year 2003 with a decision from Zahi Hawas, the director of the Supreme Council of Antiquities who believed that the museum is in big need of some extensive restoration and renovation works.

Although the restoration work should have been completed and the museum should have been opened for public in 2011, the revolution of the 25th of January and the political events that followed postponed the opening of the museum.

The restoration of the museum has also faced some financial problems because the private company which was responsible for the restoration and renovations works refused to continue its work because they haven't received the payment for the first stage of the work until now.

After the presidential elections and with matters getting calmer in Egypt, the whole Egyptian community hopes that the Museum of the Royal Carriages would son open its gates to welcome guests and function as one of the places of interests that attract tourists from all over the world to visit Egypt.

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Mohamed Ali Pasha Palace In Shubra - Egyptology

Egypt Contemporary Museums:

They exhibit relics from the era of Mohamed Ali and his family

Mohamed Ali Pasha Palace In Shubra - Egyptology

The Choice of the Neighborhood of Shubra

Although Cairo had many locations where different buildings were rundown and the owners of these structures never rebuilt them and Mohamed Ali, the founder of modern Egypt would have taken control of these pieces of land and erect his structures like many of his ancestors did, he refused to do such actions.

Mohamed Ali, on the contrary, paid attention to the empty lands that run parallel to the Nile to the north of the city and away from the center of Cairo and he chose the relatively new neighborhood of Shubra.

The reason why Mohamed Ali rejected the idea of taking a piece of land inside Cairo to build his palace was that he didn't want the Egyptian people to have a negative image of him if took the lands that belonged to other citizens.

Another reason was maybe that Mohamed Ali wanted to construct his palace in a calm district away from the evil plots that the Mamluks were planning against him because he wanted to have a sense of security in his house.

All these reasons encouraged Mohamed Ali to construct his marvelous palace in Shubra and the building work has started in 1808 and it was completed in 1809.

The Construction and the Design of the Palace

The architecture of the Palace of Mohamed Ali in Shubra 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 made the architect choose the style of garden palaces, 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 land of the Ottomans.

The architectural design of the palaces in Turkey consisted of a huge wealthy garden that is surrounded by huge defensive walls, with only a few number of entrance gates in order to monitor them in the best way possible.

Many structures were built all over this garden and some of these constructions had specific architectural characteristics. These were called hans or saraya in the Turkish language or kiosks in the English language, a word which was originally imported from the Latin language.

Among the most famous palaces in Istanbul which Mohamed Ali has copied many architectural features in his palace in Shubra is the Topkapi Palace, the seat of the Ottoman ruling for a very long period of time.

The first structure that was constructed in the Palace of Mohamed Ali in Shubra is a small villa that was built as a residence with a number of wooden buildings beside it that served as offices for the employees and places for the guards to stay. This is besides an anchorage for ships on the Nile. However unfortunately the whole structure was actually removed in the ruling period of King Farouk, the last kings of Egypt, in the 1930s to make way for the new Cairo Alexandria Agricultural Road.

Afterwards in 1821, the Fountain Villa was added to the palace which was totally designed and built by French architects and this structure is the oldest section of the palace that remained until today. In 1836, the Jabalaya Villa was constructed in the palace. This structure, which remained until today was constructed on top of an artificial scalar hill that had a square base with each side being 8 meters long.

A small garden was planted in each step of this scalar hill which was irrigated the waterwheel tower that was constructed to provide the gardens and the villa with fresh water.

Moreover, the Palace of Mohamed Ali in Shubra had the first modern system of lighting to be operating in Egypt. This system was first established in England in 1820 and Mohamed Ali called the engineer who invented it to make the special equipments and infrastructure needed.

Therefore, a gas laboratory was built near the River Nile to provide the palace with the energy needed to be lit with modern equipments.

The remaining buildings in the Palace of Mohamed Ali in Shubra

The Waterwheel Tower

This structure is the oldest surviving building in the whole complex of the Palace of Mohamed Ali in Shubra as it was constructed in 1811.

The Waterwheel Tower was constructed 130 meters to the East of the Fountain Villa in the middle of the fruits and vegetables gardens which were separated from the villa by a fence which some portions still remain until today.

The Waterwheel Tower is a huge structure that was made out of strong stones with its Eastern façade being 40 meters long and its southern façade being 21 meters long.

In the middle of the tower, there are four water wells where the waterwheels were installed to lift the water. These waterwheels operated using machines and not using animals like the normal style that was followed in Egypt at the time.

The water used to follow in certain channels above the roof of the tower and then it was gathered in reservoirs in the sides of the structure which were connected to pipes that used to transfer the fresh water to the palace and the gardens.

Attached to the Southern façade of the Waterwheel Tower, there is an ascending slope that was used to lift the machines that were functioning to operate the waterwheels. This slope was 10 meters long and 5 meters wide.

The Eastern side of the Waterwheel Tower consists only of a smooth wall with four doors. Each of these doors led to a room that overlooks the back reservoir of water. Each room has a supplement chamber where the tools and gadgets that were used to regularly clean the water wells and maintain the machines that were used to operate the waterwheels.

The Fountain Villa

This villa is situated 430 meters away from the shores of the River Nile and 230 meters away from the Jabalaya Villa. It was constructed in 1821 and it was designed by the consul of French of Egypt at the time, who was a close friend of Mohamed Ali and the decorations and ornaments were the responsibility of Yusuf Hakikan, one of the Armenian engineers who used to live in Egypt.

The Fountain Villa was constructed over a piece of land that was 88 meters long and 76 meters wide and it was built to be in the center of the gardens of the complex.

The Fountain Villa consists of a receptacle shaped structure with a number of doors and marble steps in front of each door. These steps lead to a different fountain that is based upon strong marble columns.

In the corners of the building, the façades of the four rooms and their supplements appear clearly. These rooms have marvelous colored glass windows.

The interior design of the Fountain Villa in the Palace of Mohamed Ali in Shubra 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, and 2.5 meters deep.

This basin is coated with wonderful white marble all over with a fountain situated in the middle of the basin that is based upon statues of crocodiles with the water coming out of their mouths.

At each corner of the basin, there is a fountain as well; no wonder the whole complex was called the Fountain Villa, which is circular shaped with fish carved at 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 his mouth. The fountain has a large gallery overlooking it and this gallery 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 is featured with its 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.

The Supplementary Halls of the Fountain Villa

The Fountain Villa has four supplementary halls that are quite astonishing in their decorations and their architectural design. The finest of these halls is the Salon or walnuts hall because the walls and the ground of this hall were lined with Turkish walnut trees wood.

The wall of this hall is featured with its large mirror that is decorated in the fabulous Moroccan Andalusian style. The ceiling of this hall has remarkable baroque style drawings in the golden colors.

There is also the hall of the Fountain Villa is the Arabian Hall which walls were decorated with green paintings of flowers and roses. The ceiling of this hall is featured with its distinctive wooden arabesque screens that consist of small complex geometrical shapes.

Among the decorations of the hall there are certain sections where the names of the family of Mohamed Ali are written and this part of the hall was redecorated during the reigns of Sultan Said Pasha and Abbas Pasha, the successors of Mohamed Ali

Location :

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