In English, a saray (Arabic: السراي‎; Turkish: sarayı, seray), with the variant saraya or seraya (السرايا), is a castle, palace or government building which was considered to have particular administrative importance in various parts of the former Ottoman Empire, such as the Arab provinces, Cyprus, etc. Seray may also be spelt serail in English, via French influence, in which case the L is (in principle) silent. A seraya should not be confused with a seraglio, though the origin of the words is probably the same.