A city in danger

Islamic Cairo may be the largest city on UNESCO's World Heritage List, and its problems are commensurate with its size and complexity. The very qualities that make Cairo so unique -- the number and value of its monuments, the density of the urban fabric, and the dynamism of a young, vibrant population -- are also the obstacles that make its preservation so delicate a task. Must we seek to return the monuments to a pristine, idealised state, or should restoration reflect the passing centuries? Does adaptive reuse imply people's freedom to redecorate an ancient mosque, or must the historic area be evacuated and transformed into an open museum?

At an international symposium held from 16-20 February, conservationists debated these general questions, and hammered out equally pressing details: the overcrowding of the historic core, rising groundwater, population structure and people's use of monuments, traffic and pollution, as well as a host of other dilemmas. Naturally enough, the Ministry of Culture's major overhaul came under the spotlight, prompting thoroughgoing scrutiny of the different interests at stake. In the following pages, Al-Ahram Weekly explores an ongoing and vital debate

Inheritance disputes
Is heritage the new development industry? Fayza Hassan joins experts, observers and bureaucrats rushing to save historic Cairo -- and finds that salvation has many faces

No easy task
For the first time ever, a Cairo symposium brought together UNESCO experts, archaeologists, restorers, architects and urban developers from all over the world to evaluate historic Cairo's conservation effort. Nevine El-Aref sounds out their views

Cairo Declaration for Conservation and Preservation of Islamic Sites