The Palace of the Arabian Nights (French: Le Palais des mille et une nuits) is a 1905 silent fantasy film directed by Georges Méliès.

The film, inspired by the One Thousand and One Nights, follows the adventures of a prince whose bravery and devotion are tested in a magical quest to win the hand of his beloved.

In a mythical Arabian kingdom, the noble but penniless Prince Sourire (French for "smile") loves the beautiful Princess Indigo, and asks his father, a mighty Rajah, for her hand in marriage.

The boat navigates a sacred river and brings Sourire to an impenetrable forest, which magically opens up to reveal secret caverns guarded by a Fairy of Gold.

Sourire and his friends descend into a Crystal Grotto, where their courage is tested by attacks from genii of fire, will-o'-the-wisps, phantom skeletons, a fire-breathing dragon, and a flock of monstrous toads.

Just as the two are about to be married in the palace courtyard, trumpets sound and Prince Sourire appears, bedecked in his newly found finery and followed by a procession revealing his riches.

[7] The Palace of the Arabian Nights itself, painted in trompe l'oeil style on a flat backdrop,[6] looks exactly like the salle de glaces (hall of mirrors) featured at the Paris Exposition of 1900.

)[7] In a study of cinematic depictions of Arabic culture, the writer Jack Shaheen criticizes The Palace of the Arabian Nights for including some of the imagery that would become stereotypical in Hollywood versions of the Middle East, citing the opening scene in which "submissive maidens attend a bored, greedy, black-bearded potentate" while "a stocky palace guard cools the ruler" with a giant fan.

"[16] Cultural historian Richard Abel highlighted that the cultural milieu evoked by Méliès "turns into a kind of world tour, eclectically combining" various real and imaginary exotic locations across the Middle East and Asia, "and, in a clever twist that exposes the mask of the 'other' and its dangers, the Palace of the Arabian Nights, where the treasure is hidden, turns out to look much like the Musée Grévin in Paris.