Al-Ahram Weekly 22 - 28 June 2000 Issue No. 487
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

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Run, rabbit, run

By Nevine El-Aref

After almost 40 years of indecision, plans to save Mohamed Ali's palace complex in Shubra are finally moving ahead despite the long-standing conflict between the Ministry of Culture and Ain Shams University's Faculty of Agriculture.

This magnificent palace, which was built in 13 years (1808 to 1821) on an area of 60 feddans, has lost much of its beauty and charm.

The Faculty of Agriculture, situated in its garden since 1958, has transferred it into a farm, complete with chicken coops, rabbit huts, a barn, research laboratories and cultivated areas used by students for their experiments. The faculty's administrative buildings alone occupy 80 per cent of the palace gardens.

In 1978, following a presidential decree, the palace and its garden were transferred to the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), which was to transform them into a museum. Although the decree was designed to put an end to the misuse of the palace, it triggered conflicts which have yet to be resolved.

The Faculty of Agriculture refused to evacuate the buildings; the SCA did not want to start restoration work as long as the faculty was still occupying the premises.

This, at least, was the situation until last week, when Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni visited Shubra Palace and stated there was an urgent need for a comprehensive restoration project to save the exquisite 19th-century building, which features a mixture of a rococo and baroque styles and was known as the Egyptian Versailles.

Hikmat Abdel-Shafi of the SCA, who will supervise the restoration work, says that this "is the only royal palace still standing in the governorate of Qalyubiya." Mohamed Ali, the nominal Ottoman vassal who ruled Egypt from 1805 to 1849, used it as a guest house for foreign ambassadors and members of the royal family, according to Abdel-Shafi. The palace originally consisted of 13 buildings, but in 1935 King Fouad had the buildings used as temporary residences by members of the Egyptian royal family destroyed during the construction of the Cairo-Alexandria agricultural road.

Today, only three buildings are still in place: Al-Gabalaya, used as a women's residence; Al-Fasqiya, the palace used for receptions and festivals; and Al-Saqia. Although these three buildings, according to the 1978 presidential decree, were to be transformed into museums, no effort has been made to improve or even maintain their condition. Not even a wall protects the site from the activities of the Faculty of Agriculture.

"It would be a great pity were this magnificent palace to fall victim to negligence," said Hosni. "I wanted to make something good of this palace, make it a tourist site, but I could do nothing as long as the Faculty of Agriculture was occupying most of the palace garden." The minister explained that a restoration plan is the first step toward solving the problem.

Clockwise from top: the nymphaeum now; the colonnade; repairing the curtains; a romantic landscape with classical ruins; painted ceiling; Minister of Culture inspecting the damage photos: Salah Ibrahim and Adel Ahmed

On the other hand, the Faculty of Agriculture still refuses to evacuate. Various committees gathering representatives from the SCA and the faculty have been formed to solve the problem or reach a compromise, but such efforts have proved fruitless.

"The faculty has done nothing wrong. We came here following a presidential decree issued in 1958, which transferred Ain Shams University's Faculty of Agriculture to Shubra from Al-Qubba Palace," protests Mohamed Abdel-Alim, the faculty's administrative director. Furthermore, according to Abdel-Alim, the extensions the faculty has erected on the grounds are all legal.

Hussein Mansour, dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, wonders how the Ministry of Culture envisages the move. "We have over 2,700 students, academic and administrative staff, as well as buildings, laboratories and research projects. How can we move all this out so quickly?" he demands. Mansour also cited the faculty's lack of funds as reason for delaying, if not cancelling, the projected evacuation.

"If we had effective meetings with the SCA, we could come to an agreement," he added. "We have not met any SCA officials since June 1999," however. "They simply send messages to inform us of their decisions without soliciting our opinion. There is a lack of communication," Mansour points out.

Different suggestions for a compromise solution have been introduced; the most recent was to built a wall separating the palace from the faculty. The dean refused, arguing that such a wall would not only cut the faculty off from the rest of the grounds, but would also split the faculty itself in two.

Mansour explains that the faculty administration agreed to build a wall around the three main palace buildings, but refused any measures that would divide the faculty itself.

As for the chicken coops and the rabbit huts, which encroach on Al-Saqia, as well as the student hostel, the faculty could easily move these elsewhere, says Mansour.

Taha Abdallah, head of the Archaeological Engineering Centre, based at Cairo University and affiliated to the SCA, argues that the SCA itself failed to provide adequate supervision after establishing its control of the site. Abdallah is very enthusiastic about the restoration plan and says that the Ministry of Culture will start looking for restoration experts at the end of the current month. Restoration work will start with Al-Gabalaya, which is in especially bad condition. Al-Fasqiya will follow; then Al-Saqia will be tackled.

According to Abdallah, the restoration project will focus on reinforcing the three buildings' foundations and protecting them from water leakage.

The ceilings, walls, floors, and marble columns will be dealt with separately. All the furniture will be also restored and put on display. The fountain that gives Al-Fasqiya its name will be cleaned and the missing pieces restored from the SCA's own collection of vintage marble. As for the garden, landscape experts are already considering a selection of exotic plant species.

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