Mogamma el Tahrir (Egyptians name it: مجمع التحرير and is translated as : Tahrir Complex ) is a government building in Cairo , Egypt . The Mogamma was the result of a series of master plans for Esamailiyya Square (now Tahrir Square ), which used to be occupied by the British barracks. In 1945 when King Farouk ordered the demolition of the barracks upon the departure of British troops from the area, a series of urban planning proposals ensued. The idea for a centralised, all-in-one administrative building emerged from the 1945 plans. Construction began in 1946, and ended in 1949. The building's style reflects typical 1940s modernism, and government buildings in the same style can be found in Buffalo, New York ( Buffalo City Hall ), and Paris. Contrary to popular belief, there is no Soviet association or inspiration, and the building was not constructed by the government of Egypt's second President, Gamal Abdel Nasser . Indeed, Nasser did not become the president of Egypt until November 1954, several years after the building was completed.
22-545: The Mogamma is located in downtown Cairo to the south of Tahrir Square, which was, at the time, the newly designed "Liberation Square". In 2021, the Egyptian government vacated the building and it was announced that it will be rebuilt at a cost of $ 200 million as a luxury hotel called CairoHouse by the Chicago-based Oxford Capital Group, Global Ventures Group, and UAE-based Al Otaiba Investments. The Mogamma
44-600: A 19th-century Cairo palace built by Khedive Ismail and served as the Egyptian royal household's primary official residence from 1874 until the July Revolution in 1952. Since then it has been of the presidential palaces. The palace is centered in its eponymous district, administratively part of the Western Area of Cairo, and part of the Khedival Cairo Area of Value to the west of Historic Cairo . Built on
66-591: A larger area extending south to Sayida Zeinab. Downtown Cairo was designed by prestigious French architects who were commissioned by Khedive Ismail during his visit to Paris, and since then he wanted to make the Egyptian Kingdom capital better than Paris and to be the jewel of the orient. It was he who stressed the importance of European style urban planning in Cairo, to include broad, linear gridded streets, geometric harmony and modern European architectural style. It
88-816: Is a museum, located in the Old Cairo district of Abdin . The upper floors (the former living quarters of the royal family) are reserved for visiting foreign dignitaries. The lower floors contain the Silver Museum, the Arms Museum, the Royal Family Museum, and the Presidential Gifts Museum. A new museum, the Historical Documents Museum, was opened in January 2005. Among other documents, it contains
110-659: Is an administrative governmental building, where all paperwork is done by government agencies. For example, one can go there to process documents, get a driver's license, or be issued a visa. The governmental agencies that are located in the building include the Tax Evasion Investigations Offices, the Fire Fighting Organization, and the Passport Offices. The 14-story building is the workplace of 18,000–30,000 Egyptian public servants. The building
132-537: The Middle Ages ), this palace was used as well for official events and ceremonies. The construction started in 1863 and continued for 10 years and the palace was officially inaugurated in 1874. Erected on an area of 24 feddans , the palace was designed by the French architect Léon Rousseau along with a large number of Egyptian, Italian, French and European decorators. A new wing was added by Joseph Urban in 1891. However,
154-553: The Nile , which became the commercial center of the city during the 20th century. Given its rich architectural heritage from the era of Khedive Ismail , it has been officially named Khedival Cairo and declared by the government as a protected Area of Value, with many of its buildings also deemed protected. Administratively Wust al-Balad covers areas of qism Qasr al-Nil, and the Abdeen and Ezbekia districts. The protected Khedival Cairo covers
176-454: The 1919 failed assassination attempt on Egypt's last Christian Prime Minister, Youssef Wahba Pasha lay in wait for his target; and where several members of the resistance during the 1919 revolution met in the basement to organize their activities and print their flyers. Patrons included Egyptian Nobel Prize winner and nationalist novelist Naguib Mahfouz and the then-future president Gamal Abdel Nasser . There has been renewed interest from
198-537: The Ministry of housing, utilities and urban development. A major public town square in made internationally famous during the 2011 Egyptian revolution . One of Wust al-Balad's main streets, lined with vintage architecture from the late 19th and early 20th century European Beaux-Arts and Egyptian — Islamic — Moorish Revival styles. Another important Wust al-Balad street, with famous cafes and restaurants. A model of upper-class life in mid 20th Century Wust al-Balad,
220-563: The Mogamma, was moved to its new grounds at Al Abbassia . In addition, 140 offices affiliated with the Ministry of Social Solidarity which used to occupy the fifth floor of the building have been evacuated. During the 2011 Egyptian revolution , the Mogamma was closed on account of the sit-in in Tahrir Square. A second sit-in in Tahrir Square, beginning on 8 July 2011, also included a blockade of
242-399: The Mogamma. 30°2′35.1794″N 31°14′5.98″E / 30.043105389°N 31.2349944°E / 30.043105389; 31.2349944 Downtown Cairo Downtown Cairo ( Egyptian Arabic : وسط البلد Wust al-Balad , "middle of town") is the colloquial name given to the 19th-century western expansion of Egypt 's capital Cairo , between the historic medieval Cairo , and
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#1732852675741264-653: The Yacobian Building and its residents were fictionalised as a metaphor for Cairo's later deterioration in the award-winning novel The Yacobian Building . Groppi is one of the first and most famous ice cream shops in Cairo, located in Talaat Harb Square. It was founded in 1909 by the Swiss Groppi family, survived the nationalization movement in the 1950s and 1960s, and was owned by the Groppi family until 1981 when it
286-525: The building are to be emptied and transferred elsewhere outside the downtown area, but while the government set the date for the evacuation of the building to be in mid-2017, the deadline has not yet been met. Steps towards the eventual move from the building were finally taken in mid-2019, when the Passports, Immigration and Nationality Administration , which occupied 215 offices in the first and second floors, and used to attract more than %75 of citizens going to
308-405: The ensuing departure of the upper classes, have left the splendor of its ornate edifices mired in decay. Lax enforcement of laws and regulations gave way to the entry of commercial establishments into the neighborhood, mostly with no regard to maintaining aesthetic harmony or preserving the historic buildings of Downtown Cairo. Now, most of the historic buildings within the area have been renovated by
330-483: The government administrative buildings and departments to be moved from their present locations in and around the downtown area to someplace else. In 2016, the government announced its plan to reduce congestion in the Downtown Cairo area, a plan that focuses primarily on the Mogamma, which is believed to have created and contributed to the enormous amount of congestion in Tahrir Square. The administrative offices inside
352-399: The government and the private sector since the 2000s to restore Down Town/ Khedival Cairo. The government has done mostly cosmetic work, repainting facades and replacing store signage. 30°02′51″N 31°14′18″E / 30.04750°N 31.23833°E / 30.04750; 31.23833 Abdeen Palace Abdeen District is the home of Abdeen Palace ( Arabic : قصر عابدين ),
374-431: The most famous one being el Erhab w el Kabab ( Terrorism and Kebab ) , a comedy in which the building's bureaucracy frustrates an Egyptian citizen to the point that he mistakenly grabs a guard's gun, proceeds to take the building hostage, and is labeled a terrorist. The film uses the Mogamma and unbearable bureaucracy as a metaphor for all that is wrong in Egyptian society. In 2005, the government indicated it had plans for
396-478: The palace's garden was added in 1921 by Sultan Fuad I on an area of 20 feddans. The cost of building the palace reached £E 700,000 in addition to £E2 million for its furnishing. Between four palaces, King Fuad spent more than 18 million French francs with just one Parisian furniture manufacturer Linke & Cie . More money was also spent on the palace's alteration, preservation and maintenance by consecutive rulers. The palace has 500 rooms. The palace today
418-458: The site of a small mansion owned by Abdeen Bey , Abdeen Palace, which is named after him, has adornments, paintings, and a large number of clocks scattered in the parlors and wings, most of which are decorated with pure gold. Built under the rule of Ismail Pasha , to become Egypt's official government headquarters instead of the Citadel of Cairo (which had been the center of Egyptian government since
440-461: Was bought by Abdul-Aziz Lokma. One of the most renowned downtown landmarks, on the 29th of Talaat Harb Street, is the Café Riche which opened in 1908. At various times a meeting place for intellectuals and revolutionaries, the café witnessed many historically significant events over the 20th century. It is said to be where King Farouk saw his second wife, Nariman Sadek ; where the perpetrator of
462-720: Was designed by Egyptian architect Mohamed Kamal Ismail , who also designed the High Court of Egypt 's building, and planned the expansion of the Great Mosque of Mecca and Al-Masjid an-Nabawi in Saudi Arabia. The building was built in Modern Architectural Style , with little attention to the facade's ornamentation, and more focus on its practicality, as the building was planned to - at the time - house around 4,000 employees. The Mogamma has appeared in several Egyptian movies,
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#1732852675741484-412: Was once home to the prosperous elite of late 19th and early 20th century Cairo. It is a relic of a bygone era – Egypt's belle epoque — and demonstrates the vision for developing Egypt. Yet decades of neglect by the neighbourhood's landlords and tenants following the burning of most of Cairo's buildings during the popular Cairo fire incident prior to the 1952 Revolution led by Gamal Abdel Nasser , and
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