Despite the assurances of the authority in Egypt of its interest in preserving historic Cairo, the past months have witnessed the increasing anger of many residents of the capital and heritage lovers as they see the shovels of power do not hesitate to demolish more historical areas and remove parks to be replaced by concrete blocks of giant bridges.

The Egyptian government says that the new roads and bridges are necessary to end the traffic congestion, while opponents say that they serve the road to the new administrative capital, which President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi celebrates and considers one of his biggest achievements, and they see that it does not take into account heritage and does not preserve green spaces.

According to Mustafa Waziri, Chairman of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, the government aims to develop 7 areas in Historic Cairo as part of a plan that will be implemented within weeks and will continue over a period of 3 years.

The Egyptian government responds to the protesters, who have raised their voices in recent months after the demolition of a number of historical sites, that they are not archaeological sites, that is, they are not officially registered with the Ministry of Antiquities, despite their history spanning centuries.

Historic Cairo is one of the most important and largest heritage cities in the world, as it is considered a unique model of Islamic architecture, and it combines architectural styles from the Umayyad, Tulunid, Fatimid, Ayyubid, Mamluk and Ottoman eras, which made it called the "City of a Thousand Minarets", and it was included on the World Heritage List in 1979.

Heliopolis is suffering

In contrast to the suffering of historic Cairo from the demolition of ancient tombs and buildings, many neighborhoods of the Egyptian capital witnessed operations to remove heritage sites as well as gardens and trees, which sparked a great outrage on social networking sites.

The upscale neighborhood of Heliopolis was one of the most prominent examples of this, as the residents of the neighborhood, which is famous for its abundance of trees and green spaces, were surprised by what resembles a campaign against trees that also extended to the neighboring city of Egypt, under the pretext of building bridges and expanding roads.

The people of Heliopolis, along with some interested in Egyptian heritage, also expressed their anger at the Egyptian government's plans to construct a bridge that passes near the ancient Basilica Church, which was built by Baron Edward Empain and laid its foundation stone in 1911.

And a member of the House of Representatives for Heliopolis, Amr Al-Sunbati, issued a statement last month, confirming that the passage of the bridge (the bridge) near the Basilica Church represents a great cultural damage to the region, despite his confidence that the state will not take any action that causes harm to buildings or the security and safety of citizens, as he described it. .

Before that, the famous architect, Mamdouh Hamzah, commented, saying that the construction of bridges and open roads, the cancellation of parks and the destruction of trees is a kind of "deliberate distortion of Cairo with a sick, deformed mentality," and that "silence is a surrender to the loss of Cairo."

"Bridges are not the target, the goal is a sick desire to distort Cairo," he added, via a post on his Facebook page. "Bridges are a means of distortion and at the same time enormous profits are forbidden in the belly of close contractors."

The demolition of the ancient tombs of Cairo on the pretext of development .. Anger at the communication sites and the government confirms that they are not registered to


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- Al Jazeera Egypt (@AJA_Egypt) July 24, 2020

The new capital

Analysts link the ongoing demolition of historical sites and the removal of green spaces in order to build bridges and tunnels, and the state’s plan to establish the new administrative capital east of Cairo, which Sisi pays great attention to, describing its inauguration as “the proclamation of a new republic and the birth of a new state.”

According to the Egyptian Minister of Transport, Kamel al-Wazir, the government has built more than 600 bridges and 20 new axes during the reign of Sisi, at a cost of more than 85 billion Egyptian pounds (one dollar equals about 15.7 pounds), and is planning to implement more than a hundred bridges, and media close to the authority say that these Bridges saved Cairo from "traffic paralysis in 2020".

On the other hand, about 390 thousand square meters of green spaces have been removed in Cairo governorate during the past few months, and trees and palms have been uprooted in the streets and squares of Heliopolis in order to expand the tourism route to about 12 lanes, at a cost of about $ 48 million.

Between heritage and archeology

Despite the protest campaign, the Egyptian government responds that the Basilica Church is not registered as an antiquity, as it is not affiliated with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, and these are the arguments that the government uses whenever the dispute flares up over the demolition of historical sites.

Usama Talaat, head of the Islamic, Coptic and Jewish antiquities sector at the Supreme Council of Antiquities, believes that what governs the work is the law and its executive regulations that must be strictly implemented, the most important of which is Law 117 of 1983 and its amendments in 2018, which include that the relevant archaeological area displays a file to record the antiquity, including detailed information. about him.

And he added, in press statements, that what non-specialists are raising about the Basilica Church causes confusion, as it is not subject to the Antiquities Law, so it is an unregistered church and the Supreme Council of Antiquities has no information about the claim to register it.

For his part, researcher Dr. Hussein Dokail differentiates between the demolition of antiquities and heritage, as archaeological sites are those sites registered with the Ministry of Antiquities, while heritage sites are not registered as antiquities, but at the same time they carry a distinct and unique architectural style, or belong to a specific historical period, or were a private residence for one of the Historical figures, and preservation is required by law.

Duqil mentions - in a study published by the Egyptian Institute for Studies - that the process of demolishing heritage sites goes back decades, but its pace has increased terribly in recent years, most notably the demolition of the Mamluk Cemetery, and preceded by the demolition of the Anbrian Agency.

It is noteworthy that the Mamluk Cemetery is located in the east of Salah Salem Road, and was established at the end of the eighth century AH, when the Mamluk sultans began to establish mosques and cemeteries in the Mamluk desert, and with the end of the ninth century AH, a group of religious buildings and domes gathered in Cairo that had not been seen before, according to the description Dirty.

As for the Al-Anbrian market, it is located in Al-Ezz Street in the heart of Fatimid Cairo, and its construction began in 751 AH, and it became a distinguished agency during the reign of Muhammad Ali Pasha, but the Ministry of Antiquities refused to include it in the archaeological sites, which caused its demolition.

Despite the controversy over antiquities and heritage sites, the Egyptian constitution has settled this issue, as the constitution obliges the state to preserve heritage sites, and Article 47 of the 2014 constitution says that the state is committed to preserving the Egyptian cultural identity with its various cultural tributaries, and Article 50 obliges the state to preserve all sites. The Egyptian heritage, as well as the contemporary architectural, literary and artistic cultural asset in its various diversities, and attacking any of that is a crime punishable by law.