Photographs circulated on social media in recent days have reignited a dispute over the use of Egypt’s historic buildings. They appeared to show cars parked at night in the garden of Mohamed Bey El-Shenawi Palace in Mansoura, built in 1928 and registered as an Islamic and Coptic monument in 1999. The heritage campaign Save Mansoura said the garden had become a car park. Mohamed El-Husseini Taman, head of Lower Egypt antiquities at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, denied that account, saying the company restoring the palace had organised a communal iftar for its engineers, conservators and technicians.
The dispute is part of a debate stretching back almost a decade over weddings, restaurants, advertising shoots and fashion shows at archaeological and historic sites. Some archaeologists and heritage advocates see these activities as a threat to the sites’ physical condition and cultural value. Others regard carefully managed events as a way to fund conservation and promote tourism.
In May 2016, a wedding at Qaitbay Citadel in Alexandria prompted controversy. The Mamluk fortress was built by Sultan Qaitbay between 882 and 884 AH. In October 2018, a dinner and marriage ceremony for more than 300 guests at Karnak Temple in Luxor prompted the local tourism companies’ chamber to demand an investigation.
In June 2024, television presenter Mofida Shiha’s daughter held her wedding in the courtyard of Mohamed Ali Mosque at Cairo’s Citadel. Earlier that year, presenter Tarek Allam’s daughter celebrated at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, with artists and media personalities among the guests. Another widely publicised celebration was the wedding of entrepreneur Ankur Jain and former wrestler and model Erika Hammond: four days of festivities in April 2024 included the pyramids, the Grand Egyptian Museum and Mohamed Ali Palace.
Historic palaces have also entered the debate. Ramadan tents at Qubba and Abdeen palaces offered iftar and suhoor as the government sought income from presidential properties, while critics called for their conversion into museums open to the public. A commercial featuring actress Yasmine Abdel Aziz at the Grand Egyptian Museum attracted criticism in December 2024. Parts of the museum had begun trial operations ahead of its planned official opening. Social media users also criticised a music video associated with Luxor’s royal tombs and circulated a photograph of a Syrian singer inside the burial chamber of Ramses VI.
The ministry’s 2024 annual report said the Supreme Council of Antiquities’ reliance on general state-budget funding had fallen to almost zero in the 2023/24 financial year. Meanwhile, investment in visitor services, restoration, maintenance and protection rose from EGP 1.09 billion in 2022/23 to EGP 1.406 billion in 2023/24, an increase of 29%. The report also described a 50% discount on social-event fees at sites where such events are permitted, available to ministry employees and their first-degree relatives.
Revenue and preservation: a difficult balance
Radwa Zaki, a researcher in Islamic archaeology and Egyptian architectural history, tells Zawia3 that commercial use can be a double-edged sword. It can supply money needed for conservation, but can also damage a site’s historical value when undertaken without proper assessment.
She argues that approval must depend on rigorous impact studies, sustainable planning and limits that reflect each site’s capacity. Visitors and investors need to understand what makes the place valuable, while enforceable rules must define which commercial activities are acceptable.
Inappropriate event lighting, she says, can expose vulnerable materials to heat or damaging radiation. She recommends suitable lighting, including appropriately specified LEDs, and avoiding direct illumination of sensitive surfaces. Air-conditioning installations and unsuitable decorations can also damage historic walls. Activities should be confined to designated areas away from vulnerable features and follow conservation standards.
Zaki personally supports only limited uses that do not compromise a site’s integrity. She recalls Alexandrians’ objections to turning Qaitbay Citadel into a wedding venue and sees the trend as a challenge to archaeologists, cultural figures and heritage advocates in pursuit of revenue. Her question—whether monuments might one day be sold because they generate money—expresses her concern about the direction of policy, rather than describing an announced sale.
She accuses those responsible of circumventing protections and allowing damaging uses with insufficient oversight. She wants specialist committees involving public and private expertise to examine proposals before approval, alongside stronger government supervision.
Zaki rejects activities involving flames, cooking or shisha. She describes the conversion of Mamay Palace on Al-Muizz Street into a restaurant as unacceptable and calls for accountability over the permissions granted. Adaptive reuse as a museum, cultural centre or diplomatic premises can be appropriate, she argues, whereas restaurants and cafés may undermine the building’s heritage value.
She understands the ministry’s need to raise conservation funds amid limited budgets but believes implementation has become excessive. Private events intended to attract new visitors and broaden tourism offerings must follow a clear framework.
“Egypt’s heritage should not be treated as empty property rented to whoever pays most,” Zaki says. “Economic crises do not justify putting something priceless at risk.”
Tourism’s wider economic importance is considerable, but nationwide tourism receipts should not be confused with revenue generated by antiquities. The ministry recorded 14.906 million international tourist arrivals in 2023, exceeding the 2010 record. That total covers all forms of tourism, not just archaeological sites.
The Tourism Development Authority’s 2023/24 budget provided for a 30% increase in new infrastructure investment, a doubling of tourism-development support and an overall investment budget 11% above the previous year. It targeted a net profit of about EGP 1 billion for the state treasury; this was a budget target, not a statement of realised profit.
In 2023, the then tourism minister also announced increases of up to 50% in admission prices at selected museums and sites, scheduled from December 1, 2023. The announcement referred to EGP 3 billion for restoration, EGP 1 billion more than the 2022 allocation.
When tourism and conservation interests collide
Egyptologist Monica Hanna, an assistant professor of archaeology and cultural heritage, links the expansion of commercial activity to the merger of the tourism and antiquities ministries. In her view, combining responsibility for protection with pressure to generate revenue creates a conflict of interests. Preserving heritage requires a clearer division of responsibilities and greater transparency.
Hanna is not opposed to imaginative investment or alternatives to tourism-dependent conservation funding. She proposes regulations earmarking at least 30% of the proceeds from such investments for restoration and maintenance, rather than transferring all receipts to the general treasury. This is her recommendation, not an existing mandatory allocation.
She argues that resources are being exploited without a clear conservation plan and criticises café and restaurant concessions at the Egyptian Museum’s garden in Tahrir and Baron Palace. Some historic palaces may be structurally capable of accommodating limited activities, she says, but suitability must be assessed. She also objects to a celebration platform near Djoser’s Step Pyramid which, she says, was placed above ancient tombs.
Routine maintenance and visitor limits are essential, Hanna adds. Crowds can increase humidity, carbon dioxide and physical loads in sensitive spaces. Income from weddings, birthdays, fashion shows and other commercial activities should support rehabilitation and conservation. She cites a palace café in Turin as an example of proceeds being reinvested in restoration before generating a surplus for public finances.
Hamdy Ahmed El-Sorougy, an archaeology professor at Tanta University’s Faculty of Arts, says responsibility for protecting monuments is shared. Yet leasing sites for weddings and events has become an established practice. The ministry’s assurances that arrangements are lawful do not, in his view, settle whether they are appropriate or safe.
He traces the search for alternative revenue to the tourism downturn after the January 2011 revolution. He also questions whether dancing and singing at a wedding in the courtyard of a historic mosque, as happened at Mohamed Ali Mosque, respect its religious character.
El-Sorougy asks why Egypt does not study countries that attract large numbers of tourists without renting out a comparable historic inheritance. With knowledge and proper organisation, he argues, activities can generate income and promote a monument without mistreating it.
If rentals are necessary, he says, some sites should be excluded altogether. Events should use exterior spaces that prevent direct contact with fragile fabric, with firm supervision and assessment of lighting, visitor behaviour and other risks. Specialist organisers need both event-management skills and conservation knowledge.
His distinction is between an event in a suitable part of the pyramids precinct, which could promote tourism, and one inside the nearby Valley Temple, which he considers unacceptable. The surrounding setting and the protected structure should not be treated as interchangeable venues.
What safeguards should event contracts contain?
Abdel Rahim Reihan, head of the Egyptian Civilization Defence Campaign and a member of the Supreme Council of Culture’s history and archaeology committee, says heritage should first be regarded as a cultural resource. Investment can support folk performances, conferences, literature, visual arts and other creative activities, rather than reducing historic places to venues for food and entertainment.
He rejects restaurants, cafés and wedding halls at vulnerable sites, citing smoke, noise and the risk to architecture and decoration. He would limit wedding-related use to quiet marriage-contract ceremonies, with behaviour and dress appropriate to the setting.
Reihan proposes cameras to deter interference with decoration, a ban on touching historic surfaces, and full supervision by the Supreme Council of Antiquities. Archaeologists and conservators should inspect the site at least weekly and prepare condition reports. Rental contracts should allow unannounced inspections, termination for violations and recovery of restoration costs from the tenant.
He singles out Maqad Mamay, once used as a judicial setting, criticising its use as a restaurant and café where shisha is permitted. He puts the rent at EGP 300,000 a month, a figure he supplied in the interview. He warns that damage might emerge only years later, potentially leaving the antiquities authorities with costly repairs after the tenancy ends.
Reihan believes new museums, restored sites, discoveries and overseas exhibitions provide opportunities to raise revenue without inappropriate rentals. His argument is that the meaning of investment must change: the historical value and integrity of a monument should determine the activity, not simply the price a tenant will pay.
He says his campaign documented a loud party at Philae in Aswan and calls for assessment of sound and lighting at archaeological venues, especially where stone and painted surfaces are already fragile. Conservation risks require measurement at the particular site: the speed at which sound travels alone does not establish whether an event will damage a monument.
Light sensitivity also varies by material. Conservation guidance distinguishes vulnerable pigments and organic materials from many unpainted inorganic materials. Exposure depends on intensity, duration and spectrum; it is inaccurate to assume that all stone and metal respond identically, or that every photographic flash rapidly destroys colour. Reihan’s call for controls on powerful lighting and photography therefore needs site-specific conservation assessment rather than a universal damage claim.
Protecting the image—and substance—of Egypt’s heritage
Mahmoud El-Halwagy, a professor of ancient Egyptian archaeology and former director-general of the Egyptian Museum, says preservation must be a precondition for tourism investment. Events require security staff, archaeologists and restoration teams, as well as controls protecting facilities and historic fabric.
He recommends lighting appropriate to the materials on display, filters where needed and protection of vulnerable limestone from moisture. He praises cultural festivals at the Citadel, but believes restaurant and café concessions can adversely affect historic places.
El-Halwagy acknowledges that policy has increasingly sought tourism-development revenue as the sector faced successive shocks, from the 2011 revolution to the coronavirus pandemic, international crises and the war in Ukraine. Nevertheless, he argues, the selection of events should project an appropriate image of Egypt. That matters more than short-term receipts.
Wahiba Saleh, a director-general at the antiquities ministry, favours folklore festivals, heritage exhibitions, bazaars and cultural programmes that promote tourism. She supports state-organised visitor services, including cafés and restaurants in suitable areas surrounding the pyramids, rather than turning protected monuments into venues for private weddings.
Her concern is that personal celebrations are difficult to supervise and do not necessarily bring a wider tourism benefit. Visitor behaviour and the physical effects of an activity must be examined through scientific impact assessment before permission is granted.
Saleh warns about strong lighting at sensitive sites and ancient tombs, while encouraging well-managed use of the areas around the pyramids and the Citadel. She also supports opening historic presidential palaces to visitors and organising appropriate activities under state oversight, so that the ministry is not dependent solely on admission tickets.
The experts differ on how far commercial use should extend. Some would confine it to cultural events, while others accept a broader range of activities subject to strict safeguards and a defined share of income for conservation. Their common concern is that revenue generation must support the survival of the heritage that makes those sites valuable in the first place.
