Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

"Cairo Biography".. to Renovate Heritage Beauty


Tue 15 Dec 2020 | 12:15 AM
Rana Atef

"Cairo Biography," a new initiative by Egyptian youth caught the Egyptians attention for the continuous efforts dedicated to renovating the forgotten Cairo archaeological sites.

The initiative's team contains various young archaeology students, archaeologists, and engineers alongside a number of volunteers.

They clean the sites and attempt to restore the real shape of those epic places.

According to Mohamed Salah, one of the initiative's founders, the members aim to save those forgotten places and to raise awareness about the real importance of such sites or places.

Speaking to state TV., Salah added: "We cooperate with the department of Islamic, Coptic, and Jewish Antiquities and Ministry of Antiquities to have the required permissions to proceed in our work."

In the same context, SEE News talked to Abdel Azim Fahmy, one of the initiative's founders. Fahmy expressed, "We started last September as we are old Cairo lovers. We used to hang around those old sites and check them due to our sense of passion."

"We are giving care to the less known places as they need more care. Also, we clean the sites and send our notes to the concerned authorities to make use of these places; this is our role in society's development," he explained.

Furthermore, he asserted that the team's role is only cleaning and removing any dust or trash inside the historical sites they visit, which is considered as pre-restoration phases.

Regarding the feedback of the residents of the ancient parts of Cairo, Fahmy indicated, "People were very happy because we were cleaning those places and removing all this trash and dust. So, they became more comfortable, healthier, and aware of the historical value of such places."

He added that the initiative produced a number of posters carrying the main biography and a map of the places they cleaned for people. Also, there are PDF files of those posters to make them more accessible for printing.

"We want to see those places open and ready for receiving people. There are various historical places that turned out to be cultural centers or cultural venues such as the Cultural Development Fund experience and the Bibliotheca Alexandria experience with Bait Al Sannari," Fahmy indicated.

Finally, he expressed, "We still have a lot of work to do in Cairo. Cairo's old parts are full of places that we need to work on. We only visited six places."