Al-Ahram Weekly | Egypt | Difining history

		29 August - 4 Sept. 2002 Issue No. 601 Home news	Current issue Previous issue Site map
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Difining history
The demolition of a financial services building affiliated with Cairo's Central Railway Station resulted in a belated debate about the building's historic significance. Gihan Shahine reports

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Building demolished to make way for a garage
In a city as richly endowed with modern and ancient treasures as Cairo, the preservation of an architectural gem, or a building which was witness to events of historical import, is a matter that stirs considerable passion amongst historians, the general public and the press.
Such emotions ran high with the demolition earlier this month of a financial services building that was attached to Cairo's Railway Station. But while the train station itself is a 19th century structure that charmingly integrates decorative elements typical of Islamic architecture, the financial annex's qualifications may be less impressive.
"The building is not historic," said Nawal Taha, deputy- chairman of the Railway Authority's building sector. "It dates back to 1940 and the façade was later decorated in line with the main historic station."
The building, Taha explained, was rendered defunct by the 1992 earthquake, and restoring it would have been "too costly and unaffordable for the authority."
Fahmi Abdel-Alim, former head of the Islamic antiquities department at the Supreme Council for Antiquities (SCA), scoffed at this idea. "They are destroying history," he told Al-Ahram Weekly. "This is only part of the recent demolition frenzy that is wiping out our nation's heritage."
The Railway Authority has decided to replace the building with a multi-storey garage that Taha says "would bring in funds and also relieve congestion and solve parking problems in the area".
She asserted that the new garage's façade will probably retain the same aesthetic elements found in the main station.
"What's wrong with that?" she asked.
Mohamed Hossameddin Ismail, an Ain Shams University antiquities professor, is not convinced. "Officials always choose the easiest path and destroy rather than restore," he said. "In fact, the latter is not in the dictionary anymore."
According to Abdel-Alim, the lack of funds for restoration should never be a pretext for demolition of a historically significant building. "The Ministry of Transport should seek the help of the Ministry of Culture and the SCA," he argued.
The SCA, however, has never listed the financial annex as an antiquity, which partly explains why Cairo Governor Abdel- Rehim Shehata issued a demolition permit for the building despite Cabinet Decree 7/1998, which bans the demolition of old palaces and villas, as well as other edifices of historic and architectural value.
This decree was designed to preserve the nation's architectural heritage, imposing a prison sentence of at least one year on violators. The ban, however, applies only to structures listed by the committee assigned by former Prime Minister Kamal El- Ganzouri to register the nation's historically valuable architecture. The committee's list includes at least 1,200 palaces and villas.
"Unfortunately," argued Ismail, "this list missed out on a great many precious buildings." Why? "A lack of experience and funds," the antiquities professor groans. Registering a new edifice means placing an additional financial burden on the already encumbered SCA which, in many cases, has to compensate the owner of the historic building plus cover the high costs of restoration.
Although the Railway Authority's Taha said the treasury dates back to 1940, Ismail claims that it was originally built during the reign of King Fouad (1924-1936), and was probably expanded later in the 40s.
"The UNESCO, at any rate, considers all edifices dating back to 1939 as antiquities," Ismail argued. "If the financial annex's construction date disqualifies it as an antiquity then why did the SCA register the Music Institute (1932) and the Shura and Parliament buildings (1924) as antiquities? The fact is that the SCA makes these lists according to their own whims," Ismail said.
According to Ismail, this has resulted in a great many Mamluke and Ottoman buildings leveled in the wave to modernise the city. "Officials have to be careful not to tamper with our architectural heritage, for our history and civilisation are at stake," he said.
Taha, meanwhile, insists she knows "what is of value and what is not". She says that the garage plans are part of the Railway Authority's new "modern approach".
For his part, Minister of Transport Hamdi El-Shayeb also said, in response to the public outcry, that the financial annex had no historic or architectural value.
Perhaps in an attempt to further defuse the debate, railway officials also promised that revenues from the new parking facilities will be spent on upgrading third-class trains.

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