Egypt starts restoring,documenting architectural drawings, maps at Citadel's Islamic Antiquities Registration Center

 

 

 

 CAIRO - 21 February 2021: The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities began working on the restoration and documtation project of the old architectural drawings and maps at the Islamic Antiquities Registration Center in the Citadel

 

This comes as part of the ministry’s efforts to preserve its scientific belongings, like geometric images and paintings dating back to the late 19th century, schematic drawings of the Al-Refaai Mosque at Salah al-Din Square and drawings and sketches of the project of the Committee of Preservation of Arab Antiquities for the restoration of the Muhammad Ali Mosque in the Citadel, which was completed in 1939.

 

 Dr. Osama Talaat, Head of the Islamic, Coptic and Jewish Antiquities Sector, explained that the project started with a grant from the German Henkel University, in cooperation with the Egyptian Foundation for Saving Heritage and experts specializing in the field of restoration from the Faculty of Archeology, Cairo University, the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization and the Coptic Museum. This is after the approval of the Permanent Committee for Islamic, Coptic and Jewish Antiquities.

 

 He added that the project also includes training employees from the registration center on how to register and apply first aid necessary for drawings.

 

 

He said that the project is part of the plan of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities to preserve the tangible heritage through digitization with the creation of a database of boards and old maps that will be carried out by the Committee for the Preservation of Arab Antiquities, as well as indexing the archive of the paintings according to the latest international standards, enabling researchers to have continuous access to its data in an easy and fast way.