ABSTRACT

This chapter provides a long-term perspective on the management of Historic Cairo World Heritage Site by focusing on the tensions between local communities and government departments that are tasked with built environment conservation. It focuses on the government and local communities. The chapter defines the government to be all the departments that are legally tasked with the administration, protection and management of heritage in Egypt. The Ministry of Antiquities and the Governorate are the two most important governmental stakeholders. Local communities include residents of the area around the site and those non-governmental actors with an interest in heritage preservation. The Egyptian government has made numerous efforts to preserve Historic Cairo, but the legislation and decisions taken have since the time of nomination lacked the input and understanding of the local community, whose social, cultural and economic dimensions were not considered. Inevitably, this created conflict between official heritage managers and the local community.