Trajectories and Challenges of Cultural Heritage Conservation in Historic Cairo Since the Mid-20th Century: Towards an Appropriate Conservation Approach for the Historic City

Abstract

Historic Cairo, in Egypt, is a living urban entity that was registered by the UNESCO as a World Cultural Heritage Site in 1979. Its historic urban core is crowded with outstanding medieval buildings which overlap with the city’s modern architecture and local people’s daily life activities. Unfortunately, despite receiving several conservation interventions, since the mid-20th century, most of the historic buildings in Cairo are in constant deterioration. Therefore, the study aimed at identifying the reasons behind this controversial situation, based on theoretical and practical methodologies. Through critical review of related literature and field survey, the study identified the shortcomings in the main conservation practices, implemented in Historic Cairo after the mid-20th century, and the current challenges for its effective conservation. The research findings clarified that no significant conservation effort was made in Historic Cairo during the 1950s and 1960s. While, since the early 1970s, about 17 mega conservation projects have been conducted, by national and international organizations, most of these projects adopted inappropriate conservation approaches which ignored the living nature of Historic Cairo and undermined the active participation and needs of the local community. The ‘top-down’ strategy prevailed in most conservation projects, in which the historic buildings were either ‘restored then closed’ without adaptive reuse or conserved for ‘touristic’ purposes without monitoring after conservation. Finally, the study concluded that the ‘local community’ oriented approach is the most appropriate for the effective conservation of Historic Cairo.