CAIRO – 

As of December 2021, the new administrative capital (about 60 kilometers from Cairo) will become a fait accompli when the Egyptian government begins relocating its headquarters there.

As a result, the ministries buildings and major government bodies located in Cairo are completely emptied, especially the Tahrir Complex, which is a historical monument with a unique urban style.

Suffering, difficulties, repeated visits, and long crowded queues, this is how the Tahrir complex symbolizes for many Egyptians who went to this building adjacent to the Omar Makram Mosque in the heart of Tahrir Square.

Over the decades, the Tahrir Complex building has turned into a symbol of the bureaucracy and centralization that Egyptians suffer from in light of the severe crowding in it daily. Citizens from all over the country go to it because there is no alternative to it in the rest of Egypt’s governorates to obtain official papers;

Such as travel permits and permits and other administrative procedures, which results in heavy traffic in the heart of Tahrir Square on a daily basis.

And if the governmental interests in Egypt are on one side, then the Tahrir Complex building is likely to be on the other side, due to its long history with the Egyptians since its establishment 70 years ago, to be written recently as a certificate of end of service for the building and the beginning of a new phase for it.

So what's the story?

Origin and history

- Late 19th century: The site of the building in Tahrir Square was like a serail for Khedive Ismail as a gift to his third wife, Jeshem Aft Khanum Effendi, according to the book “Cairo in the Era of Ismail” by historian and writer Arafa Abdo Ali.

King Farouk had the idea of ​​reducing the expenses of using additional government buildings, and working on centralizing the provision of government services to citizens.

He decided to construct a building called the Government Services Complex.

- March 1947: Following the evacuation of the British from the Qasr al-Nil area, the location of the old Serail, which was demolished at the beginning of the twentieth century, was transformed into the “Tahrir Complex.” It was known at the time as the Government Services Complex building during the reign of King Farouk, who decided to develop Tahrir Square, known at the time as "Ismailia Square", the demolition of the English military barracks.

1948: Engineer Muhammad Bey Kamal Ismail - known at the time as "Sheikh of Architects" - began planning for the construction of the building within 3 years to bring the building out to light at a cost of nearly two million Egyptian pounds.

1951: Inauguration of the building called "Government Complex".

1952: Its name was changed to "Al-Tahrir Complex".

design and services

The most prominent feature of Tahrir Complex - besides its geographical location in the heart of Tahrir Square - is the arched design of the building, the breadth of its halls and the number of rooms.

The building area is 28 thousand square meters, and it consists of 14 floors, 55 meters high, and has 10 elevators, two side entrances and an emergency exit.

The building is characterized by spacious halls on each floor that separate its rooms - numbering 1356 - from each other.

The complex continued to provide many services to citizens in light of the presence of a large sector of departments that accommodate its roles and offices, which number up to 27 bodies in the building and about 13 ministries.

The most prominent of these bodies and departments: the Passports and Immigration Department, a number of prosecutions such as the Administrative Prosecution, transport and departments affiliated with ministries such as the Interior, Foreign Affairs, Manpower, Social Solidarity, localities, education and health.

Symbolism in the life of the Egyptians

- June 11, 1992: In the movie "Terror and Kebab", Egyptian cinema was interested in presenting the idea of ​​bureaucracy and routine. The late author Waheed Hamed did not find here better than the complex's symbolism of routine and the difficulties of ending administrative procedures and crowding. The film presented a picture of the hero "Adel Imam" the citizen who He headed to the building to finish the procedures for transferring his son from one school to another in the Tahrir Complex, to hit the rock of routine, take hostages in the place and become a "terrorist", as events continued.

The building accommodated 30,000 employees, and about 100,000 citizens frequented it daily, according to previous press statements by former Cairo Governor Dr. Galal Mustafa Al-Saeed.

Development and structuring plans

- 2000: The then Prime Minister, Dr. Atef Ebeid, issued a decision to vacate the complex of employees to empty the capital of government interests and reduce pressure on the downtown Cairo area, but the decision continued to include officials.

- January 2016: The statements of the executive authorities in Egypt began to get rid of the complex, as the governor of Cairo at that time, Dr. Galal Al-Saeed, stated that the evacuation would take place in the middle of 2017, confirming the start of the search for alternative places for employees.

At the same time, rumors spread that the building would be converted into a 5-star hotel after one of the investors acquired it, but the information was not confirmed at the time.

- September 2020: President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi issued Decree No. 459 of 2020 removing the status of public benefit from a number of state-owned facilities and transferring their ownership to the Sovereign Fund of Egypt, including “the land and building of the Liberation Complex with an area of ​​more than 3,000 acres.”

January 2021: Cairo Governorate announced the evacuation of the Tahrir Complex and the transfer of employees to other alternative places, so that the decision includes 27 entities that used to occupy the building.

June 2021: Egyptian media reported that the Sovereign Fund of Egypt had 4 projects;

Among them is the completion of the first phase of the Tahrir Complex development plan. According to the fund, there is a market study for the building from the international company "Colliers" that has reached to convert it into a mixed-use building that includes an administrative and a commercial part, in addition to the work of hotel apartments in it.

November 2021: President Sisi reviewed with the government the development model of the Tahrir Complex submitted by the Sovereign Fund of Egypt, which announced the receipt of international offers to develop the complex to be a world-class investment building in the first place.