Princess’s palace-turned- library

Princess Samiha Kamel, daughter of Sultan of Egypt Hussein Kamal, who ruled from 1914 to 1919, was the owner of the palace located in the up-market area of Zamalek.

Princess Samiha lived in the palace until her death in 1984. Before her death, she expressed the wish for her palace to be used for artistic and cultural purposes.

“Princess Samiha had no children. In her will she bequeathed the palace to the Egyptian people and stated that it should be used for cultural purposes,” library director Yasser Osman told the Egyptian Mail.

“The Greater Cairo Library houses thousands of books and has served as one of the biggest libraries in Egypt since 1995,” Osman added.

The library was established to serve as a historical record that gathers the Egyptian capital’s heritage and history.

It documents the architecture and philosophy of Cairo and the eminent personalities who lived here.

Princess Samiha, the granddaughter of Khedive Ismail (1863-1879) had a great fondness for the arts, especially music, and often held concerts by famous singers here. She also organised literary salons and, with the help of famous Italian artists, the princess learnt sculpting, drawing and painting.

The palace was built in the modern Islamic style with Andalusian and Moroccan influences. The décor has an Ottoman touch. European Renaissance and models of architecture of Graeco-Roman architecture are found there.

The exterior of the palace has four facades. There is a circular tower which tops the facades from the southern part of the palace. It contains a number of windows topped by sharpened vaults decorated with geometric motifs.

Inside, the palace consists of three floors and a basement. White marble steps lead the visitor to the front door into the lobby. The lobby contains a number of lavish, rose marble columns with crowns decorated with floral-gilded ornamentations and the walls are rich in Andalusian frescoes.

The ceiling is divided into square and rectangular parts all filled in floral and geometric ornamentations.

From the lobby one can enter a number of rooms, including the prayer one (now VIP hall), the floor of which is clad in black and white marble. One corner includes a niche with two columns to indicate the qibla direction.

The walls in this room are made of yellow-brown marble, while the ceiling is made of wooden braces decorated with floral motifs in red, yellow and white.

Another room serves as a reception. Its ceiling is decorated with a collection of roses, flowers and Ottoman plant leaves.

Next to the reception room is the salon in the style of Roman architecture. There are two big columns topped by ionic capitals and its walls are large panels decorated with floral leaves and small flowers.

From the lobby a large staircase of white and pink marble brings the visitor to the upper floor of the building. This marble staircase intersects two sides in a circular way and then meets in the corridor of the second floor.

This floor has many halls, including that of periodicals and one housing books on art. Another hall, called the Egypt and Cairo Research Centre, contains 12,000 books on the history of Cairo.

“We have a map of Cairo dating back to 500 AD. It is an important one because it shows the River Nile passing by the foot of the Pyramids, which is evidence that the pyramids were built in stones brought by the Nile from Thebes,” Osman said.

In this hall there are microfilm and microfiche. “Maps of Cairo have all been digitised,” he said.

The second floor includes a hall for studying all forms of applied science.

The third floor includes a number of rooms, of which one is the palace tower. This room once served as the atelier of Princess Samiha and has stucco windows stained with coloured glass to add a colourful atmosphere.

The basement includes a big hall that houses 120,000 books and references in different languages.

The Greater Cairo Library is at 15 Mohamed Mazhar Street, Zamalek. It is open daily except Friday from 9 a.m. to 2.30 p.m.