The Mogamma
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.
Function
The Mogamma was used as an administrative governmental building, handling the paperwork of government agencies. For example, one would go there to process documents, get a driver's license, or be issued a visa. The governmental agencies that were located in the building included the Tax Evasion Investigations Offices, the Fire Fighting Organization, and the Passport Offices. The 14-story building was the workplace of 18,000–30,000 Egyptian public servants.
Structure and architecture
The building 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 in cinema
The Mogamma has appeared in several Egyptian movies, 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.
The Mogamma today
In 2005, the government indicated it had plans for 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 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 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 Egyptian revolution of 2011
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 the Mogamma.
See also
References
- ^ "Egyptian bureaucracy: A movable beast". The Economist. 16 July 2016. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
- ^ Williams, Sasha (2009-07-10). "The Mogamma: Architectural Gem or Bureaucratic Oddity?". Daily News Egypt.
- ^ "Egypt plans new life for Mogamaa, Tahrir's crumbling bureaucratic monolith".
- ^ "US Led Consortium Wins Bid for the Redevelopment of the Historic Mogamma el Tahrir into 'CairoHouse', a Luxury Lifestyle Hotel and Mixed-use Complex".
- ^ El-Noshokaty, Amira. "A Resilient Complex". Al-Ahram Weekly. Archived from the original on 2013-07-02.
- ^ "حوارات صحفية | "منطقتي" يحاور مدير مجمع التحرير: لا توجد خطة واضحة لاستغلال المجمع بعد إخلائه.. وتفريغ 356 مكتبا حتى الآن". 8 July 2019.
- ^ Sardar, Ziauddin (2007-04-02). "What Egyptian Cinema Can Teach Us". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 2016-08-07.
- ^ Gordon, Joel. Hero of the Arab Nation. Oxford: One World, 2006.
- ^ (9 October 2005). Red tape Mecca on its way out, Reading Eagle (from The Washington Post), Retrieved December 13, 2010
- ^ "حوارات صحفية | "منطقتي" يحاور مدير مجمع التحرير: لا توجد خطة واضحة لاستغلال المجمع بعد إخلائه.. وتفريغ 356 مكتبا حتى الآن". 8 July 2019.