BIA

AVRIL 2015
mutation se dessine à Louqsor », Al-Ahram
Hebdo du 22 avril 2015).
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Jeudi 23 avril 2015
from Luxor, Aswân and elsewhere in Upper
Egypt to the museum for restoration or display.
In 1887, a welcoming ceremony was held at
the dock for the arrival of the royal mummies
recovered by the then antiquities director
Gaston MASPERO from a secret cache in Luxor,
where they had been hidden by priests during
the New Kingdom.
al-Halwagî told the Weekly that the
museum’s designer, Marcel DOURGNON, had
constructed the gate of the museum further
from the Nile River not only to establish the
port but also to avoid the kind of construction
errors seen at the previous Bûlâq Museum,
which had suffered significant damage when the
Nile flooded in 1878.
Since it was set on fire during the 25
January Revolution, the headquarters of the
former ruling National Democratic Party (NDP)
has become an ugly landmark on the Cairo
skyline.
Some have suggested that the building be
turned into a site honouring the revolution,
such as the preserved surviving sections of the
Berlin Wall in the now-united Germany, while
others have suggested that the blackened
structure be converted into a hotel or
administrative building and the land used for a
public park.
Such suggestions have not gone down well
with curators at the nearby Egyptian Museum
and the minister of antiquities as the land the
NDP headquarters stands on was originally
owned by the museum. A campaign was
launched to return the land to the Egyptian
Museum, and after three years of struggle the
museum’s director, Mahmûd al-Halwagî, told the
Weekly that the Ministry of Antiquities obtained
a ministerial decree in March 2014 stipulating
that the land is the property of the Egyptian
Museum.
al-Halwagî said that, according to
documents held at the Egyptian Registry and
Land Survey Authority, the land was part of the
museum at the time of its construction in
1901. The area on which the NDP building was
built was originally used as a dock for cargo
vessels transporting antiquities down the river
al-Halwagî said that maps drawn up in 1911
and 1926 showed a bookshop and cafeteria on
the land, while on the west of the site stood
the museum’s workshops and storehouses.
After the 1952 Revolution, the land was
sequestrated by the government from the
Egyptian Antiquities Authority, now the Ministry
of Antiquities, and used by various sections of
the regime. The last tenant was the NDP, which
shared the large Nile-side premises with the
National Council for Women, various national
agencies and the Arab Bank.
Last week, a ministerial decree was issued
ordering the demolition of the now abandoned
and burnt-out NDP building. The job was given
to the Engineering Department of the Armed
Forces.
“I am overjoyed at the demolition of the
NDP building. It is a real threat to the museum
and its priceless collections,” al-Halwagî told
the Weekly, adding that the former NDP
headquarters was unsafe and could collapse at
any time. He said that the building had not
been the headquarters of British intelligence, as
some have claimed. The area was only called
the British Army Settlement because a few
army buildings were located there.
When the demolition is complete, said
Minister of Antiquities Mamdûh al-Damâtî the
area is to be convert into an open-air museum
showcasing some of the museum’s collections,
now short of space in the main building. A hall
BIA LI — Janvier/Juin 2015 96