Abdeen Palace

Khedive Ismail’s European seat of power, built to make Cairo ‘part of Europe.’

Khedive Ismail moved his court down from the medieval Citadel to this vast new palace in 1874, part of his campaign to remake Cairo on a Parisian model. For nearly a century Abdeen was the working seat of Egypt’s rulers, from khedives to kings — the address where modern Egyptian history was signed, celebrated, and sometimes surrendered.