ALEXANDRIA: After a very long wait, the Royal Jewelry Museum in Alexandria is finally open again. On Saturday, April 10th, First Lady Suzanne Mubarak reopened the museum after several years of renovations. The ceremony was also attended by culture minister Farouk Hosni, SCA chairman Zahi Hawass and Alexandria Governor General Adel Labib. The museum had been closed for over five years, leading many conspiracy theorists to speculate that the jewels had been stolen. No disappointments, however, were in store for the museum’s first visitors. The museum houses an impressive collection of jewels belonging to the Muhammad Ali dynasty, whose rule started in 1805 and ended with the reign of Egypt’s last monarch, King Farouk, in 1952. Located in Alexandria’s Zizinia neighborhood minutes away from the new San Stefano Mall, the museum was originally a palace belonging to Princess Fatima Al Zahraa Haider, a descendant of Muhammad Ali, until it was expropriated by the government after the 1952 revolution. The palace then became a presidential rest house until 1986, when President Mubarak issued a decree to assign the palace as a special museum to house the jewelry left over by the Royal Family after the revolution. In addition to the collections of extraordinary jewels, medals and other artifacts, the palace is in itself an architectural masterpiece and a pleasure to visit. It was built in 1919 and was designed along European lines by Princess Fatima’s maternal uncle and a leading Italian architect, who also designed the Sidi Gaber train station. The paintings and statues are the work of several Italian painters and sculptors. The palace is surrounded by gardens and has a surface area of 4,185 square meters, making it one of the biggest museums in Egypt. The palace rooms and lobbies are rich in fine art paintings of various members of the Royal Family. The walls and ceilings are adorned with oil paintings depicting angels and natural scenery. The most beautiful decorations are on the stained glass windows which adorn both sides of a hallway linking the east and west wings of the palace. The windows are decorated with lead inlaid glass artwork depicting 18th century European style scenes, which tell a prince’s love story from his first meeting with his beloved until their marriage. The bathrooms on the palace’s upper floor are also works of art, featuring colorful, elegant paintings on the tiles. The renovations cost 50 million Egyptian pounds ($9 million). Work has been done on the building itself, its halls, the lighting system and the stained glass windows. The fruit of several years of effort is a beautiful masterpiece, now open to visitors. Now that the museum is open, visitors to Alexandria will have an extra museum to visit besides the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and the Alexandria National Museum. The Graeco-Roman museum is closed for renovations. Other antiquities, such as the Catacombs of Kom al Shoqqafa and Ras el Tin, the Roman amphitheater and Pompey’s Pillar are open to visitors and definitely worth the time, but in need of some improvement. The Royal Jewelry Museum is open seven days a week and easily reached by tram. BM
