Meeting with the Ministry of Waqf

Specialists to manage the 128 historical mosques

Published on 29 May 2011

Author(s): Zahi Hawass

Type:  Blog

Joint committee including high officials from both ministries that will meet monthly to discuss solutions and actions that need to be taken to restore the mosques

Today, I met with Dr. Elhussein, the Minister of Waqf to discuss the restoration of some Islamic monuments. We have spent 2 billion EGP on the conservation of Egyptian monuments over 20 years. We agreed that we will select a specialist company to provide security for 76 early mosques in order to protect them from theft. Many mosques have had pieces stolen, and working with this company is the first step in making sure that this does not happen again.

I agreed with Dr. Elhussein during our meeting today that it is important to find specialists to manage the 128 historical mosques that are all over Egypt. We also agreed to make a joint committee including high officials from both ministries that will meet monthly to discuss solutions and actions that need to be taken to restore the mosques. The restoration of the Islamic monuments would be under the MSA and then authority for these would be returned to the Ministry of Waqf so that regular religious activities could be reinstated in the mosques.

At the meeting, we also examined the problem of the people who are living inside the monuments. These historic buildings are concentrated in the area of historic Cairo, especially in Al-Ahazr, Hussein, the Citadel, Old Cairo, and the Rameses Districts. The joint committee will attempt to find a solution that will be best for both the people living and working there as well as for the buildings themselves. Based on the existing contracts between them and the Minister of Waqf they will save and restore these monuments to prevent them from collapsing, especially since most of these buildings have become dangerous. We not only want to preserve these buildings but also prevent any human loss that may happen if they are not restored to proper working order.

The committee will work on how to deal with the people living there in order to best find solutions for them and find other places for them to live and work. The Ministry of Waqf will change its existing contracts with these people to ensure legality, and this committee will work on saving and restoring the monuments that are in bad condition

I also believe that the Ministry of Waqf could attempt to finance some of the restoration projects for the historical mosques. The Minister of Waqf is in control over specific properties. These properties were designated to certain mosques. Historically, any profits made by those properties would go to funding upkeep of that specific mosque. Now, that money is going to these restoration projects.

All of the restoration work carried out on these Islamic monuments was completely financed by the MSA (and its predecessor, the Supreme Council of Antiquities) over the last 20 years. The cost of this work, undertaken on monuments with both religious and secular functions in Cairo, Rosetta, Alexandria, Damietta and Taba, was 1 billion EGP.

Dr. Elhussein and I also discussed the development project in el Gamila Street, parallel to el Moez Street in Historical Cairo. This will be a joint project between the two ministries.

We will cooperate on restoring these non-registered monuments. Many of the Islamic monuments were damaged during the earthquake of 1992 and subsequent projects were emergency projects.

Back to previous page