Montaza Palace

Side view of the Al-Haramlik Palace
The Al-Haramlik Palace, at the Montaza Palace complex in the Al-Montaza royal gardens.

Montaza Palace (Arabic: قصر المنتزة‎‎) is a palace and extensive gardens in the Montaza district of Alexandria, Egypt. It was built on a low plateau east of central Alexandria overlooking a beach on the Mediterranean Sea.

History

The extensive Montaza Palace grounds first had the Salamlek Palace, built in 1892 by Khedive Abbas II, the last Muhammad Ali Dynasty ruler to hold the Khedive title over the Khedivate of Egypt and Sudan. It was used as a hunting lodge and residence for his companion.

The larger Al-Haramlik Palace and royal gardens were added to the Montaza Palace grounds, being built by King Fuad I in 1932, as a summer palace. It is in a mixture of Turkish and Florentine styles, with has two towers, one rising distinctively high above with elaborated Italian Renaissance design details. The palace has long open arcades facing the sea along each floor.

President Anwar El-Sadat renovated the original Salamlek Palace as an official presidential residence. It was most recently used by former president Hosni Mubarak.

Public access

The Al-Montaza Park, the former expansive royal gardens of 150 acres (61 ha), are open as a public landscape park and forest reserve.

The Al-Haramlik—Montaza Palace is a public museum of the Muhammad Ali Dynasty family history and objects d'art. The Salamlek Palace is now an adjacent hotel.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Montaza Palace.

Coordinates: 31°17′19″N 30°00′57″E / 31.2886°N 30.0159°E / 31.2886; 30.0159

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/11/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.