The Zaafaran Palace was built during the era of Khedive Ismail in 1870. The palace was so named because the area surrounding it was famous for saffron (in Arabic Zaafaran) plantations. It was one of the royal palaces, and it is said that King Farouk was born there.

The palace was similar to the Palace of Versailles in France, where Khedive Ismail spent a period of his education. The Khedive has asked to carve his initials, and his crown at the palace's entrances and inscriptions still exist until now.

In 1872, Khedive Ismail gave the palace to his mother Khoshyar Hanim, as doctors advised her to live in a place with fresh air, and the Zaafaran Palace was the perfect place as it has vast gardens planted with Zaafaran.

The palace consists of three main floors. The first floor has a collection of Roman-Greek columns of green and yellow marble with gold crowns on top. It also has a reception hall on the left side of the entrance door.  Next to the reception hall, there are two big halls and a dinning room with capacity of 49 people.

The second floor has eight bedrooms, each of which has a salon and a large marble bathroom, and the room walls decorated with colorful flowers and roses patterns.  The main hall is on the left side as you enter from the stained-glass door, and there are two reception halls reached through a large copper staircase covered in gold. The staircase has two sides elevating the level of the palace’s floors.

In 1985, Al-Zaafaran Palace was designated as an Islamic monument, given its historical value as a witness to Egypt’s modern and contemporary history. Moreover, Ain Shams University began the restoration and maintenance of this famous landmark in 1994 in cooperation with the Egyptian Antiquities Authority, taking into consideration preserving the architectural and archaeological features of the palace. Unfortunately, the condition of the landmark was deteriorated, and it was renovated again in 2010.