Abdeen palace is considered the jewel of Cairo’s 19th century architecture. Before it was built, Egypt was governed from the citadel of Saladin, the fortress on the hill. The citadel contained at that time, besides the ruler’s palace “Al-Gawhara”, several governmental buildings as well as the Mohamed Ali mosque.
Cairo was limited mainly to the old Fatimid City, which extended only to the Egyptian Canal (Al-Khalig Al-Masri), which was filled in and is now Port Said Street. Some of the area between the Egyptian Canal and the Nile was used for agriculture; the rest was marchland.
When Ismail Pasha came to power in 1863, Egypt was already engaged in the construction of the Suez Canal which would open in 1869. Egypt would invite dignitaries from all around the world for the grand opening and the Khedive thought that Cairo, with its 10th century Fatimid capital would be unable to accommodate such an event.
In year 1867, on the occasion of the universal exhibition held in Paris, Napoleon the third invited Khedive Ismail to visit France. Egypt had a pavilion in the exhibition called “Enigma of the Orient”, which contained a Pharaonic temple, a bazaar and a tent.
During the visit, Khedive Ismail witnessed the big transformation being made in Paris by its governor “Le Baron Haussmann”, who constructed vast Boulevards and gardens, while enforcing urbanization laws and regulations.
Impressed by all of this and encouraged by Baron Haussmann, Khedive Ismail decided to create “Modern Cairo” in the area between the Egyptian canal and the Nile. Le Baron Haussmann advised the Khedive to hire two engineers to help: Grand Bey and Deschamps, who became advisers to the minister of Public Affairs Ali Pasha Mubarak. This area of Cairo, constructed by Ismail Pasha, was known as Ismailia and, because of the beautiful architecture, it came to be nicknamed as “Little Paris”.
The two main streets of Little Paris are nowadays known as Talaat Harb and Mostafa Kamel and it also included el-Ezbekiya gardens. There was also the beautiful old opera house.
The main, official palace to be constructed to replace the palace in the citadel was Abdeen Palace – neither the palace, the opera house nor Qasr-el-Nil bridge were completed before the inauguration of the Suez Canal.
The Empress Eugenie, the guest of honor for the opening ceremony of the Canal, was obliged to stay in el-Gezira Palace instead of Abdeen and to cross the Nile via a temporary floating bridge instead of Qasr-el-Nil Bridge.
The Opera Aida was supposed to be performed at the inauguration of the opera house, but that too wasn’t ready on time and Rigoletto was performed instead.
Next week, we’ll take a closer look at Abdeen Palace and its wonderful contents.
