Restoration of Rosetta city to be included in World Heritage List

CAIRO – 3 August 2018: Head of the Islamic, Coptic and Jewish Antiquities Department at the Ministry of Antiquities Dr. Gamal Mustafa, visited a number of archaeological sites in Rosetta (City of Rasheed), Egypt, to examine the progress of the renovation and development of the city and turn it into an outdoor museum of Islamic monuments.

He was accompanied by Mohamed El-Tohamy, director general of Rosetta Antiquities, Dr. Diaa Zahran, director general of Technical Follow-up in the Sector, and a group of managers of archaeological areas and Directors of Archaeological Affairs.

Gamal Mustafa clarified that the ministry is working in full swing to take all the executive procedures in cooperation with all concerned parties to implement the project of developing the city of Rosetta.

The ministry is also preparing a special file on the historical city to submit to UNESCO to put it on the World Heritage List. The city has been on the organization's preliminary list since 2003.

Mustafa assured that all the necessary measures have been taken to accomplish this task.

A committee has been formed which includes a group of officials of space and property in the ministry, Department of International Cultural Heritage and the Department of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), whose mission is to define the city's historical boundaries and to establish a sanctuary for a number of archaeological sites.

The committee has completed the establishment of 20 antiques from a total of 39, in addition to assigning professional specialized photographers to document the moments of all the antiques in the historic city.

Dr. Gamal inspected the ongoing works at the Zaghloul archaeological mosque, the hub of archaeological crafts, including carpentry workshops and carpets, and provided all necessary raw materials for them.

Dr. Mustafa said that the ministry will begin the work of restoration and maintenance of three mosques in Rosetta, namely the Halabi mosque in Idfina, the dome of Nur al-Din in Dibi, and the dome of Abu Shusha in Dairut.

The financial support for restoration works from the Ministry of Awqaf amounted to more than LE 14 million.