Royal Greenhouse (al-Sawba al-Malakiyya), Antoniadis Gardens

Egypt's State Information Service (SIS) calls the Antoniadis Gardens, in eastern Alexandria, the city's oldest historic gardens, and some historians trace them back to the Ptolemaic period. Their present form is credited to the Greek cotton merchant John Antoniadis, who had a palace built and brought in the Frenchman Paul Richard to lay out the grounds in the French style. On the date, the SIS gives the 1870s and a 2019 article 1860. The two agree that the estate was bequeathed to the municipality of Alexandria and handed over in 1918 by the donor's son, Antonis.

Al-Ahram Gate places the Royal Greenhouse at the start of the twentieth century. A 2019 overview already lists it among the main sights of the gardens, at the western end and in view of the palace's north terrace. It has since been restored as part of the redevelopment overseen by the Alexandria governorate and the Ministry of Agriculture: Al-Ahram Gate reports it fully refurbished, with its ornate iron frame and glass roof retained, and once again home to tropical plants.

The descriptions agree on an iron-and-glass building. The 2019 article speaks of a large greenhouse built in the form of a gable ("jamalun") and made of wrought iron, in three parts: a front pavilion and a rear pavilion, both square in plan, rising through several levels and each ending in a square upper dome, and a middle section linking them. All the walls and all the roofs are covered in glass. Al-Ahram Gate adds, after the restoration, an ornamental iron structure and a distinctive glass roof that admits natural light.

The building's outline in OpenStreetMap, where it is tagged as a historic greenhouse, covers about 420 m²; this is a map measurement, not a figure from the garden's managers. The structure stands at the western end of the Antoniadis garden; according to the 2019 article, the palace's large north terrace looks over the front garden and the greenhouse.

Al-Ahram Gate reports that the restored greenhouse once again houses a set of tropical plants and rare species, of a kind normally seen only in major botanical museums. The daily Youm7 (July 2026) recommends it to visitors by mentioning the collection of rare plants it contains.

At the scale of the gardens, the SIS mentions rare roses, more than 38 species of trees and 27 species of palms; the 2019 article also lists, among the additions of the development programme, a reserve devoted to the cycad, which the text counts among rare palms. These collections belong to the Antoniadis garden as a whole and are not described as those of the greenhouse.

The greenhouse sits at the western end of the Antoniadis garden, one of the three gardens of the complex alongside the Nuzha and the rose garden, according to the SIS. A visit combines naturally with the marble statues (seventeen according to Al-Ahram, put back in their original positions after restoration), the avenues lined with jacarandas and the palace, whose full restoration is under way with an opening as a museum announced for the near future.

The place is very popular: the management told Al-Ahram of 100,000 visitors a week, up to 40,000 a day during holidays. The Nuzha garden and the rose garden, mentioned by the SIS, are neighbouring; a 2019 article suggests the Alexandria zoo and the Corniche as next stops.