Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court of the State Council decided to punish 10 senior antiquities officials for neglecting restoration of historic Cairo’s walls. The penalties included salary reduction, demotion, and fining.
The officials were accused of neglecting the violations of the Nile Valley Company, which is responsible for restoring the walls, as the company removed ancient stones from the wall without necessity and replaced them with new stones that do not match the specifications and set up toilets inside the archaeological site that may damage the archaeological excavations.
The court said that the constitution obligated the state to protect, maintain, and restore antiquities, as well as organise excavations and supervise them.
The court added that a complaint had been received from the archaeological youth’s office to the Minister of Antiquities’ office about the violations attributed to the supervising staff of the project to restore the eastern and northern walls of historic Cairo by the Nile Valley Company.
The court noted that the committee formed by the Minister of Antiquities in 2016 to examine and inspect the restoration work of the historic wall proved that the archaeological stones were replaced with new ones randomly without an accurate plan and adequate engineering blueprints showing the locations of the stones to be replaced and the reason for the replacement.
The report indicated that the new stones were lower in quality and did not conform to the specifications and technical assets required. The inspection committee also proved that equipment not suitable for use with antique stones was used in the botched restoration attempt.
