Egypt Guide
Alexandria and the Mediterranean coast
The Royal Jewellery Museum
Address: 27 Sharia Ahmed Yehia
Opening time: Daily 9am–5pm, Ramadan Mon– Thurs, Sat & Sun 9am–3pm, Fri 9–11.30am & 1.30–4pm
Price: £E35
The Royal Jewellery Museumis three blocks in from the Corniche, between Glym and San Stefano; it's also a short walk from the El-Fenoun el-Gamilia or Qasr el-Safa stops on the #2 tram line. The museum is housed in a mansion built for Mohammed Ali's granddaughter Princess Fatima el-Zaharaa (1903–83) and her husband Ali Heider, and is as splendidly vulgar as the treasures on display. Among the highlights are Mohammed Ali's diamond-inlaid snuffbox, King Farouk's gold chess-set, a platinum crown with 2159 diamonds, and his diamond-studded gardening tools. The main gallery downstairs is lined with stained-glass cameos of courtly love in eighteenth-century France, while images of Provençal farmers, milkmaids and food decorate the service corridors. Upstairs are the wildest his‘n'hers bathrooms – hers with tiled murals of nymphs bathing in a waterfall, his with scenes of Côte d'Azur fishermen.