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The Manial Palace (daily 9am-5pm; GBPE20, students GBPE10) is a Cairo must. Built in 1903, its fabulously eclectic architecture reflects the taste of King Farouk's uncle, Prince Mohammed Ali, author of The Breeding of Arabian Horses and the owner of a flawless emerald that magically alleviated his ill health (so legend has it). Each of the main buildings manifests a different style - Persian, Syrian, Moorish, Ottoman and Rococo - or mixes them together with gay abandon. Having bought your ticket, make a beeline for the Reception Palace just inside the gateway. Its magnificent salamlik, adorned with stained glass, polychrome tiles and ornate woodcarving, prepares you for the opulent guest rooms upstairs; the finest is the Syrian Room, which was quite literally transplanted from Damascus. On the stairs you'll notice a scale model of Qaitbey's Mausoleum, made entirely of mother-of-pearl. Leaving the Reception Palace and turning right, you come upon a pseudo-Moroccan tower harbouring the prince's mosque , whose lavish decor is reminiscent of the great mosque of his namesake in the Citadel. Further along, the grotesque Hunting Museum features scores of mounted ibex heads, gorgeous butterflies and ineptly stuffed fowl, a hermaphrodite goat, a table made from elephants' ears and a vulture's claw candlestick. The Prince's Residence , deeper into the banyan-shaded garden, is richly decorated in a mixture of Turkish and Occidental styles. The drab-looking building out back contains a long Throne Hall whose red carpet passes life-size royal portraits hung beneath a sunburst ceiling. Around the outside of this hall are the skeletons of the prince's horse and camel, and a stairway to the upper level (often closed). If accessible, visitors can admire its Obsidian Salon and the private apartments of the prince's mother, enriched by a silver four-poster bed from the Abdin Palace. Lastly, follow the signs to the Private Museum , a family hoard of manuscripts, carpets, glassware and silver plate - notice the huge banqueting trays.
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