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November 2009
A Legacy in Danger
Two lesser-known Egyptian legacies have been put on the World Monuments Fund watch list
By Nadine El Sayed



Two of Egypt’s heritage sites — a 50-year-old village built by a famous architect, and an 800-year-old mosque built of mud and salt — are in danger of decay, according to the World Monuments Fund (WMF).




The WMF releases a biennial watch list of the 100 most endangered sites worldwide. This year, the Old Mosque of Shali Fortress in Siwa and the New Gourna Village, occupied by residents for only the past two and a half years, were named as endangered monuments where protection is both needed and possible, if conservation authorities take the necessary steps.

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The New Gourna Village

The New Gourna Village, an earthen settlement on the West Bank of the Nile near Luxor, is remarkable for being designed by late architectural guru Hassan Fathy, who later documented the village in his famous book Architecture for the Poor. The village is also historically significant as it was built to house families being relocated by the government away from sensitive archeological sites and tourist locations.

Erica Evrami, director of research and education at the WMF, explains that Fathy has influenced architects and communities around the world who feel that, as a classic example of his work, the New Gourna Village deserves to be protected. The WMF says that Gourna is a “testament to how the relationship between heritage and society is often fraught with multiple meanings and conflicting values.”

The village was built in the late 1940s as an alternative home for 20,000 Gournawis who were being relocated to enable excavations of, and prevent theft from, tombs thought to lay below the original Gourna village. Although the site was completed in 1949, Gournawi residents refused to leave their homes for the newly-built village; they resisted government relocation until early 2007.



The mosque at the Shali Fortress in Siwa Oasis dates to 1203.

The new village was built so as to preserve the feel of old Gourna with facilities including schools, a theater, a market and the Khan, where Fathy built his house. Fathy wrote Architecture for the Poor, in which he discusses solutions to rural housing problems in Egypt and tells the story of New Gourna, a project that served as the perfect place to implement his theories.

According to the WMF, Fathy was commissioned to build the new village because he was renowned for intergrating traditional materials and technology with modern architectural principles; it turned out to be one of his greatest achievements. “Fathy’s philosophy and vision derived from humanistic values about the connections between people and places and the use of traditional knowledge and resources in designing the built environment,” says the WMF.

Today, however, nearly half of the village is suffering from poor maintenance, says the WMF. Increased urban pressure and an expanding tourism sector are compounding the situation.

The Old Mosqueof Shali Fortress

In a country with such a plethora of ancient monuments, and a rumored 1,000 minarets in Cairo alone, the Old Mosque of Shali Fortress is often overlooked. Dating back to 1203, the mosque is situated on an elevated site to defend against attacks from nomadic raiders. It is the oldest monument in Shali, part of Siwa Oasis, and is the oldest mosque in the world constructed using karshif, a naturally-occuring mixture of mud and salt found in the oasis’ dry lake bottoms.



The mosque at the Shali Fortress in Siwa Oasis dates to 1203.

Gaetano Palumbo, WMF program director for North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, says the mosque was included on the watch list because “it represents a peculiar type of construction in earthen material [] This traditional method of construction is disappearing, and we hope that the listing of the mosque will attract national and international attention to this unique heritage.”

Floods, World War II bombing and the abandonment of the karshif tradition in favor of concrete developments have endangered the Shali heritage that distinguishes Siwan architecture. Yet, according to the WMF, “the mosque has remained a perpetual and unremitting symbol of the history and community of Siwa Oasis. Despite its small size and state of dilapidation, the mosque remains an important symbol of the community and a place of religious rituals and celebrations.”

The WMF decided to call for the preservation of the mosque in order to maintain the town’s link with the karshif tradition, once a distinguishing feature of the region. Palumbo says, “more attention is required to regulate the growth of the inhabited sector of the village in order to avoid unsympathetic developments that may spoil the character of the site.”

How it Works

Evrami explains that the watch list is composed of sites nominated by individuals and organizations; the WMF itself does not nominate sites. “Anyone can nominate a site, and site owners need not endorse a nomination for it to be considered,” says Evrami. This process ensures diversity and openness, bringing lesser-known sites to the WMF’s attention. The WMF and outside professionals review the nominations and a panel of international experts makes a final selection. According to Evrami, the selection is based on four main criteria: significance, urgency of action, viability of saving the site and relevance. The site’s significance can be historical, artistic, social, civic, spiritual, religious, research, natural, economic or symbolic, and the panel determines if the site is informative to the heritage field at large.

Sites identified by the WMF are not necessarily dealt with in a uniform way. In some cases, WMF can provide technical and/or financial assistance for watch sites, but the projects to which these resources are applied are determined in cooperation with the authorities responsible for the site, according to Evrami. Palumbo adds that the WMF has already helped to preserve several sites in Egypt — on and off the list.

Some of the sites that received grants for preservation included Aqsunqur Mosque (also known as the Blue Mosque) Khasekhemwy, the Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III, Qaitbay Sabil, Shunet el-Zebib, Tarabay al-Sharify and Valley of the Kings. “We also financed a series of projects at sites that were not listed, but for which we received requests for assistance that we deemed important to support,” said Palumbo, citing their work on Karnak Temple in Luxor, the Luxor Temple and two minarets in Darb Al-Ahmar in Cairo.

The WMF’s newest project is the Blue Mosque in Cairo. Built in 1347 by Amir Aqsunqur, it is the largest mosque in Bab El-Wazir and an exceptioanl example of early Mamluk religious architecture. During restoration in 1652, the mosque’s sanctuary was redecorated with blue Iznik tiles, hence the name the Blue Mosque. Parts of the mosque were endangered after the 1992 earthquake and the building was in a general state of disrepair. Moisture around the foundation, corrosion on the decorations and theft of tiles from the qibla all threaten the site. The project, funded in part by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture in Historic Cairo, is expected to be completed by 2012. et

Past Egyptian Site Listings on WMF Watch List
2008: Shunet El-Zebib in Abydos
West Bank of the Nile in Luxor
2006: Sabil Ruqayya Dudu in Cairo
Tarabay Al-Sharify in Cairo
The West Bank in Luxor
2004: Khasekhemwy in Edfu
Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III in Luxor
Sabir Ruqayya Dudu in Cairo
2002: Khasekhemwy in Edfu
Valley of the Kings in Luxor
White and Red Monasteries in Sohag
Sultan Al Muayyad Hospital in Cairo
2000: Khasekhemwy in Edfu
Sultan Qaitbay Complex in Cairo
Valley of the Kings in Luxor
1998: Mortuary Temple of King Amenhotep III
1996: Qaitbay Sabil in Cairo