Tour Guide, Cairo, Egypt
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The Royal Jewelry Museum
The Royal Jewelry Museum is an art and history museum in the Zizenia neighbourhood of Alexandria, Egypt. It is located in the former palace of Princess Fatma Al-Zahra'. The building's halls contain an inestimable collection of jewels and jewellery of the Muhammad Ali Dynasty. 19th-century paintings, statues, and decorative arts are also exhibited in the rooms and lobbies. The museum was first inaugurated on 24 October 1986. After several years of renovations and expansion, it was reopened in April 2010.
The Royal Jewelry Museum celebrates the Egyptian royal family established by Mohamed Ali Pasha in 1805, which continued to rule for 150 years. The collection is displayed in the stunning palace of Princess Fatma El Zahraa, a descendent of Mohamed Ali Pasha.
The palace, built-in 1919, acts as a striking backdrop to the magnificent possessions owned by the family. It uniquely merges European and Islamic styles and reflects the remarkable taste of the princess in the paintings, gilded ceilings, and mosaics decorating the many rooms of the palace.
The possessions amassed by the family over the span of their rule are on display throughout the magnificent halls of the palace. A diamond and emerald inlaid collar belonging to the founder of the dynasty, Mohamed Ali Pasha, is among the museum’s collections. The lavish lifestyle of the family is reflected in a gold chessboard, gold binoculars encrusted with diamonds, rubies, and emeralds, and gold cups inlaid with precious stones. Dazzling and elaborate jewellery commissioned by the greatest designers in Europe, which once adorned the queens and princesses of Egypt’s royal family, is also on display.