On the banks of the Nile in Helwan near Cairo, the three-storey King Farouk Corner, its modest boat-shaped design and quaint
garden giving the impression of a country lodge, stands in an area far from the bustle of this now busy city.
Some 80 years ago, Helwan was a quiet retreat, enjoyed by members of the royal family, aristocrats
and top government officials, and the corner is a reminder of this period’s clean air and lush greenery.
In 1916, in order to build a tea kiosk for the grand hotel in Helwan
at that time, the Italian architect Arsan Giovanni bought the land where the corner was built.
It was purchased by Mohamed Bek Hafez in 1932 and then sold in 1935 to King Farouk, who added a large garden.
Building construction was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II, but the building was finished in 1942 and was surrounded by a botanical garden of rare plants.
The house includes a basement with a wide rear entrance
gate where the quarters for the kitchen and servants are housed.
The Corner will now be linked to the Hapi Nile Tour, a ministry
trip launched two years ago linking four sites in Cairo located on the Nile.
The sites are the Tahrir Square Egyptian Museum,
Mohamed Ali Manial Palace and Roda Island’s Al-Manesterly Palace.
This relatively small home, opened by the King on September 5, 1942, is
only three storeys high, with the basement containing the kitchen and servants’ quarters.
The corner is actually shaped to look like a boat, which is noticeable if you
take a ferry to the other side of the river, after being constructed on the Nile.
The building’s interior is decorated in a rather pharaonic style, with everything from tiny
clocks and paperweights to complete dining sets embellished with pharaohs and hieroglyphic designs and etchings.
The King also had a scale model replica put on his balcony of Luxor’s Karnak Temple, and three replica mummification beds in his bedroom.
A life-size bronze statue of an ancient Egyptian harpist greets visitors to the Corner, which also contains a bronze sphinx and a huge gilded clock encrusted with precious stones and featuring golden dials. The glass frame of the clock is decorated with golden ancient Egyptian-style crocodiles.
