Egypt's new President has a lot of palaces to choose from! At the start of his term of office he has chosen Oruba Palace, like his predecessor before him, to be the Presidential headquarters. But should he tire of that one, there are plenty more. None of the travellers, worn out after a day's work and packed as they are like sardines into the cars on Cairo's Metro, have the least idea as they are taken from central Cairo out to the sprawling habitations in Ain Shams, Ezbet el-Nakhl and el-Marg, what quite lies behind that white wall that stretches the length of the line from Kobri el-Qobba to Saray el-Qobba stations. Most of them are too hot and exhausted even to notice. If they could just get a glimpse over the wall they would be taken to another world, a world of opulence and luxury none of them could even dream of. The very railway they are travelling on was constructed to carry royal guests directly from Alexandria or central Cairo. For behind the six metre high wall, ordered by King Fouad to be built around the entire seventy five acres of garden, lies one of Egypt's most exquisite royal palaces, with peacocks still strutting on the lawns and pelicans catching fish in the ponds. After the fall of the Monarchy, it was here that President Gamal Abdel Nasser lay in state waiting for his momentous funeral. It was here, too, that the former Shah of Iran, shunned by all those countries who had once feted him when he was useful to them, spent his last days, after Egypt's President Sadat had invited the deposed ruler to use the palace as his home. Forty years earlier the Shah, as Crown Prince of Iran, had celebrated his marriage there to Princess Fawzia, sister of King Faroukh. The Shah would later be buried in the royal mausoleum at Ar-Rifai Mosque. The white walls running alongside the Metro line surround what is now Egypt's Official Guest Residence, Kobba Palace. Sometimes an enormous foreign flag flying over the main entrance gate is the only suggestion as to which dignitary is in residence. The palace, though, has been the home in Cairo for Kings, Princes and Presidents. It was during his stay at the Palace in 1976 that President Richard Nixon took part in the first ever Live satellite broadcast from Egypt. On May 8, 1936 history was made when the sixteen year-old King Faroukh addressed his people by radio for the first time. Kobba Palace was built by Khedive Mohammed Tawfiq, who ruled Egypt from 1879 to 1892, at the end of his father's reign. Out in the countryside, away from the centre of Cairo, it soon became one of the favourites of the royal family. It was there that the royal marriages of Abbas II Hilmi, Sultan Fouad and King Faroukh's marriage to Queen Farida took place. The beautiful palace, built in the European style, is surrounded by equally beautiful gardens. Inside the palace there is an inner staircase of rare Italian alabaster which was used by the royal princesses and princes to get to the garden. Cocooned in splendour from the harsh realities of the outside world, it was here that they would ride horses and ponies and be driven around in small carriages, while the people of Egypt beyond the walls scraped their pennies together to make a living. The second son of Khedive Tawfiq, Prince Mohammed Ali Tawfiq, who would later become Crown Prince during the reign of King Faroukh and who would die in exile in Switzerland, used to call the gardens of the palace “The Garden of a Thousand Delights," filled as they were with exotic, oriental shrubs and plants from all over the world. The 400-room palace, small in comparison to the much greater Abdeen Palace in the centre of the city, nonetheless became one of the official residences of the royal family, and it was quite the favourite of King Farouq, who housed there many of his collections of stamps, coins, clocks and other bric-a-brac that were all swept away and put on sale after his downfall in 1952. There are sitting rooms in green, yellow, blue and lilac, and bedrooms in pink and turquoise, all imitating the style in vogue with European royalty. Throughout the palace are mirrors (hundreds of mirrors), chandeliers, paintings, tapestries, carpets, furniture, statues, China, glass, gold and silver. The royal dining room is especially beautiful, with its circular table and large, bright windows letting in the sunshine from the garden. Outside the Dining Room stands a rather quaint, antique coat stand, where guests at the royal table would hang their coats and hats before being admitted. The ceiling in this room, like many of the rooms in the palace, are carved and finished in gold. Marble fireplaces would be filled with logs during the winter months, until replaced by gas. The time was chimed out by a thousand beautiful clocks. No ticking of the clocks, though, could hold back time. Nothing could stop what lay in store for the palace and the royal family. Muslims read in the holy Qur'an in Surat Al-A'raf: To every People is a term appointed; when their term is reached, not an hour can they cause delay, nor (an hour) can they advance (it in anticipation). 7:34 When the time had come for King Farouq and his household to be swept away, like the now jailed President Mubarak after him, there was nothing they could do to prevent the inevitable. The Free Officers handed the King a letter of Abdication to sign at Ras El-Tin Palace in Alexandria, another of his official residences, and he duly signed it and sailed out of Alexandria Harbour forever. The people on the Metro may know nothing of peacocks and pelicans as they stand squashed next to one another, but they, too, need to prepare for the inevitable. The journey they are on is not only taking them to El-Matariya and Zeitoun. If only they knew it, their journey is to another world, and nothing can stop the day they will arrive at their final destination. British Muslim writer, Idris Tawfiq, is a lecturer at Al-Azhar University. The author of eight books about Islam, he divides his time between Egypt and the UK as a speaker, writer and broadcaster. You can visit his website at www.idristawfiq.com.
