msmooretravels

Sheikh Khazal Palace

This palace in Kuwait City was built by Sheikh Khaz’al of Muhammarah, a friend of Sheikh Mubarak, in 1916. After his death, his widow continued to live in the building. Freya Stark went to visit her in 1937 and described the palace in her work Baghdad Sketches, “it crumbles away slowly in the sun, while a young Persian widow lives inside it… like a princess in a fairy tale, still young but so poor that she will scarce marry again. Here and there in the empty rooms some trace can still be seen of former bustle, an old barouche in the entrance, glass ornaments and painful coloured fancies, mattresses piled high for guests, and brass-bound coffers. The young widow sits dressed in black with high-heeled shoes on a stiff chair, and feeds her guests with sherbert, pistachios, and melon seeds, her pretty little whimsical face smiling with a natural cheerfulness inexplicable to the European mind.”

From Kuwait by the First Photographers and The Kuwait Urbanization by Saba George Shiber

From 1957 to 1976, the palace served as the Kuwait National Museum. In 1960, Kuwait launched an architectural competition for the design of its second National Museum. French architect Michel Ecochard won and his design was completed in 1983. After the palace was no longer the National Museum, it began to deteriorate.

From the instagram of Ali Al Rais, Iridescent Kuwait, Maha Alessa’s instagram, Voice of the Oud, this blog post

Across the street are the ruins of the Al Ghanim house, also built by Sheikh Khaz’al around 1915. It, too, was in ruins but in 2022, a controversial renovation project began. The Al Ghanim House and Khaz’al Palace are both near the British Embassy, which was built in 1935. On the old map of Kuwait below, you can see a small illustration of the palace when it was still the National Museum. Nearby is #45, the British Embassy. According to this map, both the American and Soviet embassies were also nearby.

Here you can see old photos of the British embassy, which come from Kuwait by the First Photographers, postcard dates to the 1950s, and The Kuwait Urbanization by Saba George Shiber.

The palace was further damaged during the invasion, which you can see below. It is currently on the tentative list to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

From the instagram of Ali Al Rais and Getty Images

Here are photographs of a tour of the ruined palace in 2012 from this flickr account.

Here is a postcard an account on eBay is selling using the image I took of the ruins and Kuwait Towers in 2021:

14 comments

  1. […] In her work The Voice of the Oud, Jehan Rejab includes some photographs and information on the Bayt Al Ghanim House. She writes that it was built around 1915 by Sheikh Khaza’al and notes how the building was unique in some of its features. Today the building is in ruins, but is protected by a gate (that features these same photos seen in Voice of the Oud) so may be renovated! It is located across the street from the ruins of the Sheikh Khazal Palace. […]

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