Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Ahmed Issa discussed with Salem bin Mohamed Al-Malik — Director-General of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (ISESCO) — ways to enhance cooperation in the field of heritage preservation and combating illegal trafficking in cultural property.
During the meeting, Al-Malik stressed the organisation’s keenness to develop the cooperative relations between it and Egypt in the field of heritage preservation.
He also reviewed the most prominent programmes and activities carried out by the organisation in its fields of competence, pointing to the fruitful cooperation between the ministry and the organisation and expressing the organisation’s desire to participate in the activities that will be held on the side-lines of the 27th UN Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP 27), which will be hosted by Egypt in Sharm El-Sheikh this November.
For his part, Issa welcomed Al-Malik, stressing his keenness to maximise cooperation between the ministry and the organisation and coordination to deepen relations with the ISESCO to preserve Islamic and world heritage.
They also discussed the frameworks of cooperation between the two sides and coordination in the field of heritage preservation, the project of transforming heritage sites into green areas, registering Islamic antiquities on the ISESCO World Heritage List, and other future projects.
It is worth mentioning that there are a group of Egyptian historical sites and cultural elements registered on the ISESCO’s heritage list, including the Nilometre in Manial, the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, the city of Shali in Siwa Oasis, the Baron’s Palace in Heliopolis, and the Red Monastery in Sohag. This is in addition to the city of Al-Qasr and the Al-Bajwat cemetery in the New Valley, which are registered on the organisation’s preliminary list.
