Deep down a winding dead-end back alley in the Cairo district of Bulaq, so hidden that few people apart from the residents themselves ever see it, lies an exquisite arched gateway made of ornamental stone. Bulaq is full of such treasures, although often hard to find beginning in the 15th century it was Cairo’s wealthy port on the Nile, when the spice trade and later the coffee trade to Europe passed through Egypt. As such it was chock-a-block with well-built warehouses, merchant lodgings and religious structures. In 1979, it was one of about a dozen Cairo neighbourhoods placed on Unesco’s World Heritage List. The gateway is in the Mameluke style, indicating it may have been built as long as 500 years ago.

Read More: Destruction of Egypt’s Historic Buildings a Financial and Cultural Disaster

The 1,000-year-old dome of a mausoleum in Aswan’s Fatimid cemetery was severely damaged Monday [February 9th, 2015] after a derrick fell on it during nearby construction, said head of Islamic and Coptic Monuments Dept. at the antiquities ministry Mohamed Abdel Latif. In a phone call with al-Mehwar TV channel, Abdel Latif said the boom of a derrick, working in the neighboring area where the Aswan International Sculpture Symposium is being held, “malfunctioned and fell causing damage to the southern part of the fence surrounding the Maadawi dome mausoleum along with half of the dome’s top.”

Read More: 1,000 Year-old Mausoleum Accidentally Damaged in Aswan

Representatives of an Egyptian heritage body have called for authorities to act to stop ongoing building and painting work at the Sayyeda Zeinab Mosque in Cairo. On Monday [May 20, 2013], Samir Gharib, head of the National Organisation for Urban Harmony (NOUH) called on Cairo governor Osama Kamel to stop the work on the façade of the Sayyeda Zeinab Mosque in downtown Cairo because it does not follow the established regulations for the protection of historic buildings.

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In Cairo’s Al-Sayeda Zeinab district, the mosque of Ibn Tulun stands as imposing as when it was first constructed in 876 on top of a hill known as Gabal Yashkur. Recently, however, the mosque lost some of its splendour as garbage and swaps of drainage water amassed along its external wall.

Read More: Ibn Tulun Mosque in Need of Rescue