Manial Palace Museum

Manial Palace on Roda Island was built between 1899 and 1929 by Prince Mohamed Ali Tewfik as five buildings in different styles around a botanical garden. A foreign adult ticket costs about 250 EGP, and it is open 9 am to 5 pm.

Manial Palace went up between 1899 and 1929 on the northern tip of Roda Island in the Nile. Its builder, Prince Mohamed Ali Tewfik, was King Farouk's uncle and twice regent of Egypt. He was a keen collector who loved every strand of Islamic decoration, so instead of settling on one style he commissioned five separate buildings in five different idioms, Ottoman, Moorish, Persian, Syrian and Rococo, set around a botanical garden.

A visit easily fills half a day. Look out for the Throne Hall with its Persian tile dado and gilded ceiling, the Reception Palace and its grand staircase, the Private Residence with the prince's bedroom and library, the family mosque with an Anatolian tile mihrab, the dazzling Golden Hall in lacquered Damascus woodwork, and the odd Hunting Museum of stuffed trophies, including, rather grimly, heads from King Farouk's hunting trips. A small carriage house holds royal carts.

The botanical garden was once one of Egypt's great private tree collections and still has rare specimens.

What to see

• The Throne Hall and its painted ceiling
• The Golden Hall in Damascus woodwork
• The family mosque with Anatolian tiles
• The Hunting Museum, strange and a little unsettling
• Five architectural styles in one compound

Visiting

• Opening hours: 9 am – 5 pm
• Tickets: about 250 EGP for foreign adults
• Best time: weekday mornings, when the gardens are at their best
• Nearby: Coptic Cairo and the NMEC are a short taxi ride south