Mohamed Al Fayed often said that when he died he wanted to be buried on the roof of Harrods in a pyramid, like a modern pharaoh.
That long-held ambition vanished when he sold the Knightsbridge shop in 2010 – something he once vowed never to do.
In the end, his final resting place was less unusual, but still remarkable: a burial chamber next to that of his son Dodi in a mausoleum guarded by statues of lions and sphinxes on the family’s 226-acre estate in Surrey.
Consisting of a simple wooden pergola with a pine beam roof, 12 wooden pillars and a natural stone floor.
Four continuously burning candles surround the grave of Dodi, who was killed in a car accident in Paris 26 years ago along with Princess Diana. In his final years, his Egyptian father — who died on Wednesday at age 94 and was buried on Friday — spent long hours in the shadows of the mausoleum, mourning his son.
“I come here every day, maybe two or three hours, and memories come back to me as I sit,” Mr. Al Fayed once said.
Mohamed Al Fayed often said that when he died he wanted to be buried on the roof of Harrods in a pyramid, like a modern pharaoh
Mr Al Fayed with his son Dodi, who died in the same crash that killed Diana in 199
Mr Al Fayed (right) with Prince Charles (back to camera) and Diana at a Harrods-sponsored polo match in 1987
“I say prayers and think of Dodi, but sometimes I do my work here or have breakfast.”
According to a source close to the family, it was “fate” that he died on the eve of Dodi and Princess Diana’s death 26 years ago.
Located across a stream just a few minutes’ walk from the 17th-century family home, the 18-foot-tall mausoleum was built on what used to be Dodi’s polo field. One of Mr. Al Fayed’s brothers is buried in one of the eight chambers.
For such a flamboyant billionaire, Mr Al Fayed’s funeral at the London Central Mosque in Regent’s Park was surprisingly understated.
After all, this was a man who, in addition to Harrods, had also owned The Ritz in Paris and Fulham Football Club, and whose business interests spanned the globe.
He managed a fleet of ships and built an empire of properties in London, Paris, New York, Geneva and St. Tropez. He installed the Egyptian Room in Harrods, which housed several busts of himself, and he also created a memorial to Dodi and Diana, who were dating at the time of their deaths.
Mr. Al Fayed cultivated prime ministers, yet not a single dignitary attended his funeral, not even the Egyptian ambassador. The media was surprised by a hasty invitation – photocopied notices on the pillars of the mosque – asking worshipers to participate in the service after jummah, or Friday afternoon prayer.
Mohamed Al Fayed pictured in Paris in 2016. He sold Harrods and Fulham FC – his largest UK business holdings – in 2010 and 2013 respectively
Mr Al Fayed bought Fulham FC in 1997, his cash injection sending the club to the Premier League and European competitions in just a few short years. He is pictured here in 2011
Mohamed Al Fayed with the Queen in 1997. Through his business connections and charity work, he mingled with high society
Funeral directors SM Funerals said it was deliberately restrained, in line with the family’s wishes.
It is unclear whether Mr Al Fayed, who suffered from dementia, died at home, although his body was collected from a London hospital on Friday and taken to the mosque where a ritual bath was performed before being placed in the coffin.
Only about thirty mourners — relatives and close friends — traveled in the hearse.
A 45-second mobile phone video emerged on Arab social media sites showing Mr Al Fayed’s coffin being laid in the foyer of the mosque, guarded by relatives and friends, as worshipers walked by and stared at their mobile phones .
The coffin was covered with a green cloth with verses from the Quran. Mr Al Fayed has always maintained that Dodi and Diana were killed by the British security services. His claims led to the Harrods store being stripped of its four royal warrants: the right to certify that a business supplies goods to the royal family by appointment.
Michael Cole, a former journalist who worked as director of public affairs for Harrods, said some people could never “forgive” his boss for buying the shop. “He wasn’t complacent, he didn’t fit into the British establishment,” Cole said.
“And I think some people could never forgive an Egyptian for buying their favorite shop on Brompton Road, Harrods.”
He added: ‘He was never happier as he went to the trade counter, cut some salami for some of his customers and talked to them. The fact is that when you talk to the people who actually knew him, who worked for him, who were his clients, they have a very different view than people who sit in ivory towers and make fun of him.’
Mr Al Fayed applied for British citizenship in 1995 but was rejected. In 1999, weeks after it was awarded to his brother Ali, he reapplied. This time he was declared unfit to hold a British passport by the then Home Secretary Jack Straw.
He appealed the decision, but three judges of the Court of Appeal rejected his claim.
Jonathan Aitken, whose ministerial career was cut short with the help of Mr Al Fayed when he revealed that the then Tory frontbencher was staying for free at the Paris magnate’s Ritz hotel at the same time as a group of Saudi arms dealers, said yesterday: ‘Mr Al Fayed was a five-star lunatic, but I don’t hold a grudge against him.”