Interdisciplinary approach for the management and conservation of UNESCO World Heritage Site of Historic Cairo. Application to Al-Ashraf Street.

Egypt is very rich with archaeological sites. These sites contribute significantly to the tourism industry which is one of the main income sources for the Egyptian economy. However, the management and conservation of these sites is a challenging task due to the ever-increasing threats such as population growth, urbanization, pollution, natural hazards, among others. These threats result in the gradual deterioration of these sites, and hence results in significant economic losses.
Interdisciplinary management is fundamental to the conservation of these sites, particularly when dealing with large areas such as Historic Cairo which contains more than 600 listed historical structures. Unfortunately, however, Historic Cairo suffers from the following: 1) deterioration of its historical structures at an alarming rate; 2) poor site management; 3) disempowerment of local communities, thus depriving them of their role as main stakeholders and beneficiaries of heritage; 4) deteriorated infrastructure resulting in decrease in quality of life and hampering socio-economic growth; 5) rising of groundwater level inside historical structures; 6) absence of plans for waste management; 7) poor security and safeguard of heritage sites resulting in trespassing on historical structures by misuse, demolition, wrong restorations, illegal construction activities, and so forth; 8) lack of studies related to structural assessment, safety evaluation and health monitoring of its historical structures; and finally 9) absence of plans for adaptive re-use of historical structures after restoration.
All these problems are epitomized in Al-Ashraf street and its historical structures which makes it an ideal choice for the application of this study. The street is about 600m long starting near to Al-Sayeda Nafisa square and ending at the intersection with Ahmed Ibn Tolon street. It contains 8 historical structures dating back mainly to the Fatimid (969-1171) and Mamluk (1250-1517) periods and constructed primarily from stone and brick masonry; among them are the Domes of Al-Ashraf Khalil, Fatma Khatun and Shajar Al-Durr. In specific, the two domes of Al-Ashraf Khalil and Fatma Khatun are suffering from a series problems that may lead to their total loss if no action plans would be taken to conserve them.
The research proposed in this project will be highly complementary to previous studies carried out for the conservation of Historic Cairo. In 2010, the URHC (Urban Regeneration of Historic Cairo) (urhcproject.org) was launched by the UNESCO-WHC to assist the Egyptian government in the management of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Historic Cairo. The URHC project, which was completed in 2014, was concerned with the whole of Historic Cairo. Its wide and overarching scale therefore did not enable detailed studies such as those related to groundwater studies, structural aspects, health monitoring and specific conservation plans, which are all dealt with in this proposal, to be addressed. In contrast, aspects such crafts, violations after the revolution of 25 January 2011, housing rehabilitations, are not given primary focus in this proposal. The proposed research will however make direct use of the findings and recommendations of the URHC study, particularly in terms of using GIS as a management tool, conducting surveys on the local population, and addressing the problem of waste management. Importantly, focusing on only one street within Historic Cairo will enable detailed conservation and intervention methodologies which incorporate disaggregated structural, groundwater, waste management and community-specific solutions to be developed.

Egypt has a large number of historical sites distributed all over the country, among them seven UNESCO world heritage sites. Historic Cairo is one of the most well-known and visited sites within these. The tourism industry heavily depends on these historical sites in many ways. They represent a primary source of income to a significant proportion of the population directly by supporting the following jobs: hotel staff, travel agents, airlines staff, tour guides, souvenir shop keepers, street vendors, entertainers, as well as administrative and maintenance workers on the various sites. Tourism-related employed people are mostly living in poverty around the tourism hotspots to be able to commute easily to their work. The fall in tourism, from 2011 till now, has led to serious breakdown of conservation and maintenance activities which were partially funded from ticket sale and revenue. In addition, the lack of appropriate management plans of historical sites leads to bottle necks in the rise of tourism. Therefore, the current research will synergise with current government and NGO efforts to add Al-Ashraf Street (and its surrounding zone of al-Khalifa) to the cultural tourism map.
The proposed research investigations will offer key decision makers, represented in the Ministry of Antiquities and Cairo Governorate, the developed techniques and methodologies within the outcome of this project. This will be achieved through close cooperation with Megawra which has been active in the neighbourhood since 2012 and has an MoU with Cairo Governorate for collaboration on the development and upgrade of Historic Cairo as well as an agreement with the Ministry of Antiquities for the studies of the archaeological conservation of the Domes of Fatima Khatun and al-Ashraf Khalil.
The Ministry of Tourism (Egypt) and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (UK) will be other beneficiaries of the proposed research. The outputs from the project will be transferred to the public, as well as national and international media via websites, newspapers articles, posters, and others, to publicise developments. The increase in the number of local and international visitors to Al-Ashraf Street and the surrounding area of Historic Cairo will be an indicator of the positive impact of the project.
There will also be of added value to The Ministry of Scientific Research (Egypt), and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (UK). Scientific projects related to the conservation of Egyptian and UK historical sites are of vital importance. This project will therefore contribute to a key research field and will transfer knowledge related to the management and conservation of historical sites, and particularly in its application in dilapidated sites in developing countries. This project will put Al-Ashraf Street (and its surrounding zone of al-Khalifa ) on the academic maps as a subject for research. As well, it will add new much-needed researchers to the Athar Lina initiative network who representing research fields and countries that are not represented. This project would also help stimulate research on other historical sites, and the increase in the number of such projects may be used in future as an indicator of the positive impact of the project.
Other stakeholders include the Departments of Conservation of Monuments and Historical Sites, and Islamic Architectural Studies, in the Faculties of Archaeology and the Departments of Architecture, Urban Planning, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Structural Engineering, and Hydrology in Egypt.
The initiation of this project would also ultimately instigate closer collaboration between Cairo University and Imperial College London, in terms of research and education, as well as with the Ministries of Antiquities and of Scientific Research in Egypt and their UK counterparts, together with community-led and societal organisations, in order to promote cooperation in this field.