{"id":16904,"date":"2026-07-05T20:08:05","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T18:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/?p=16904"},"modified":"2026-10-07T04:32:34","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T02:32:34","slug":"zahriya-garden-zamalk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/zahriya-garden-zamalk\/","title":{"rendered":"11,000 Signatures and a Lawsuit: Zamalek Residents Resist Al Zahriya Garden Redevelopment"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 3 June 2026, residents of Cairo\u2019s Zamalek district saw machinery and site cabins entering the historic Al Zahriya Garden, which dates back more than 150 years. The arrival appeared to mark the beginning of redevelopment discussed\u2014and opposed\u2014two years earlier.<\/p>\n

In 2024, MP Samira Al Gazzar submitted a parliamentary question to the prime minister and relevant environment, agriculture and urban-development authorities over the garden\u2019s closure for handover to a \u201csovereign body\u201d for redevelopment.<\/p>\n

She said the works went against residents\u2019 wishes for their remaining breathing space after what she described as damaging redevelopment of the historic Obelisk Garden. Public gardens belong to citizens, she argued, criticising the removal of greenery and trees.<\/p>\n

Zamalek resident Inas Tawfik says reports of machinery and cabins increased fears of an undisclosed project. Residents launched the \u201cSave Al Zahriya Garden\u201d campaign on social media to stop any work converting a public garden into a commercial area.<\/p>\n

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They submitted collective complaints through the cabinet\u2019s unified complaints system, seeking an immediate halt, protection against clearing and environmental impact studies. A community petition<\/a> had gathered more than 11,000 signatures by publication.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Residents seek disclosure through the courts<\/h2>\n

With no announced details about the implementing body, land to be taken from the garden or legal compliance, the Egyptian Foundation for Environmental Rights announced an urgent case on 7 June before Abdeen\u2019s summary court. Case No. 475 of 2026 was listed for a hearing on Sunday 5 July.<\/p>\n

The registered civil-society foundation requested a Justice Ministry expert to inspect and document the garden\u2019s condition, identify companies that placed cabins and construction materials there, establish their legal authority and examine their contracts.<\/p>\n

It also sought identification of the Agriculture Ministry official responsible, disclosure of the development plan, and examination of environmental-impact assessment and compliance with urban-harmony guidance for historic gardens.<\/p>\n

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Environmental lawyer Ahmed Al Saeedy, chairman of the foundation\u2019s board of trustees, says the immediate purpose is to preserve evidence and identify the responsible parties and plan. Residents have encountered uncertainty rather than useful answers from officials.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Article 19 of the Environment Law requires environmental impact assessment for public and private projects, he says. Public consultation with potentially affected parties is an essential component, but neither environmental groups nor Zamalek residents were consulted.<\/p>\n

In September 2025, the Zamalek Gardens page circulated a purported plan including a hotel, courts, shops, theatre and gym, reportedly covering 17 percent of the garden. This is a circulated proposal, not a plan officially disclosed to residents.<\/p>\n

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Al Saeedy says several versions are circulating without formal announcement. Under guidance for Zamalek and its gardens, building should occupy no more than two percent, he says; exceeding that would sacrifice significant greenery.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Residents fear a repeat of the Obelisk Garden, where redevelopment under a Khedival Cairo project ultimately turned trees into decoration between commercial outlets, he argues.<\/p>\n

The National Organisation for Urban Harmony\u2019s guidance places Al Zahriya in Zamalek\u2019s \u201cA\u201d zone, requiring environmental protection and limiting building footprints to no more than two percent. The document is an important reference for assessing any disclosed proposal.<\/p>\n

During the preceding two years, an investment project at the heritage-listed Obelisk Garden introduced restaurants, shops and courts. The Zamalek Association for Development described clearing, tree removal and changes to its historic character in 2025.<\/p>\n

At its October 2025 opening, Local Development Minister Manal Awad said redevelopment preserved all rare and historic trees and plants and added more than 1,600 suitable new trees. Her statement did not address or deny the allegations about soil clearing and commercial projects.<\/p>\n

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A garden at the roots of Egypt\u2019s botanical heritage<\/h2>\n

As Khedive Ismail built Khedival Cairo and developed Gezira Island around the palace and gardens to welcome royalty for the Suez Canal\u2019s 1869 opening, Al Zahriya formed part of the island\u2019s gardens.<\/p>\n

A Bibliotheca Alexandrina documentary<\/a> describes Ismail commissioning French landscape gardener Jean-Pierre Barillet-Deschamps and his assistant Gustav Delchevalerie, later superintendent of khedival and government gardens. The island became a major acclimatisation garden, where new plants were introduced and adapted to Egypt\u2019s climate.<\/p>\n

Al Zahriya was central to those experiments. Iron-framed glasshouses protected tropical plants against winter cold, spring khamsin winds and summer heat. More than a million plants were used to landscape the island, with many later Cairo trees descended from introductions made more than 150 years ago.<\/p>\n

In May 2025, the Zamalek Association for Development appealed to the president after historic glasshouses were being emptied ahead of an investment project involving caf\u00e9s and restaurants. It requested cancellation of investment licences and preservation of the garden as public green space.<\/p>\n

The association proposed private sponsorship without commercial exploitation: monthly cultural or environmental events, improved nurseries, plant sales and heritage tours, with civil society and experts involved in management and protection of rare plants and trees.<\/p>\n

Among Al Zahriya\u2019s best-known trees is a banyan more than a century old, once at the garden\u2019s centre before Al Borg Street divided the site.<\/p>\n

Construction of Cairo Tower and a physical-education faculty on part of its former land left a garden described in the report as eight feddans, still important to Egypt\u2019s botanical heritage.<\/p>\n

The urban-harmony guide records establishment in 1871 under Ismail and an area of 50,000 square metres, with a historical reference to a million plants representing 2,000 varieties. Its area figure differs from the report\u2019s eight-feddan description\u2014about 33,600 m\u00b2\u2014and the sources may refer to different boundaries or periods; they should not be treated as identical current measurements.<\/p>\n

The garden is open to visitors, with an EGP 10 ticket cited at publication. Residents fear that redevelopment will change its affordability. Zawia3 tried to contact Mohamed Abu Saada, head of the urban-harmony organisation, about the plan and compliance, without success.<\/p>\n

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A new parliamentary question and residents\u2019 demands<\/h2>\n

On 8 June, after equipment entered the site, MP Dalia Al Saadany submitted a new parliamentary statement addressed to the prime minister and relevant ministries. She requested disclosure of the project, owners, implementers and supervisors and approvals from heritage and historic-garden authorities.<\/p>\n

She also sought the number of trees cut, moved or removed, and any environmental or heritage impact studies. She called for a halt to tree removal until the project is publicly presented and a joint committee of relevant ministries and the urban-harmony organisation reviews it.<\/p>\n

Al Saadany asked for an official inventory of historic and rare trees and their condition. Redevelopment should improve the garden while preserving its identity and green areas, she argued, rather than reduce its heritage value.<\/p>\n

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Tawfik says residents cherish a district associated with cultural figures including Umm Kulthum, Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Edward Said and Youssef Chahine, but fear it is becoming a giant food court. She cites a recent count of 209 restaurants and caf\u00e9s, arguing that the neighbourhood needs trees rather than more outlets.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\u201cAl Zahriya is part of Zamalek\u2019s memory,\u201d she tells Zawia3. \u201cChanging it means erasing the district\u2019s identity and removing an important lung.\u201d She says it must not be treated as vacant land: its mature trees and rare botanical varieties belong to environmental heritage that future generations should enjoy as a public garden.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Residents want any redevelopment to respect their needs, protect the environment and heritage and follow sustainable-development principles, she says.<\/p>\n

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Balancing economic returns and the environment<\/h2>\n

Adel Moatamed, an environmental geography professor associated with Assiut University and Saudi Arabia\u2019s King Khalid University, describes a longstanding debate between approaches prioritising economic returns and those recognising the environment as essential to human life.<\/p>\n

Environmental impact assessment provides a means of balancing development and ecological protection, he explains. It examines living and non-living environmental components before a project, anticipates operating impacts and recommends ways to increase benefits and minimise damage.<\/p>\n

Moatamed says Zamalek historically benefited from some of Egypt\u2019s strongest urban green coverage. He cites losses over a decade of approximately five million square metres nationally, while the Arabic text also gives an incompatible conversion of \u201c50,000 kilometres\u201d and a separate Cairo loss of \u201c32 kilometres.\u201d Because the units and scopes are inconsistent, those figures cannot be combined or presented as verified square-kilometre totals.<\/p>\n

He estimates that Zamalek lost around 25 percent of its green space in recent years. He says the district previously provided around ten square metres per resident, against a commonly cited nine-square-metre benchmark. Continued conversion would reduce that advantage and threaten a natural green lung.<\/p>\n

The Arabic report cites a very low national per-capita green-space figure for 2020, written as \u201c17 centimetres,\u201d against \u201cnine metres.\u201d These are area indicators that require square units and a defined coverage basis; the wording does not establish a comparable national measure, so it is not converted into a verified area estimate here.<\/p>\n

Moatamed highlights banyan and tamarind trees, violets and tropical orchids in the garden. Replacing greenery with development can contaminate soil and water and diminish biodiversity, he says.<\/p>\n

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Climate, ecological and psychological costs<\/h2>\n

Green spaces also provide psychological comfort and a stronger relationship between people and their surroundings, along with social and economic benefits often overlooked by developers.<\/p>\n

Trees absorb carbon dioxide, produce oxygen and moderate local conditions, he explains. Their removal can increase heat and reduce evapotranspiration, affecting local moisture and environmental conditions.<\/p>\n

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A tree is an ecosystem, not merely wood and leaves, he says: it supports birds, insects, small mammals and microscopic organisms, contributes to soil and protects against erosion while benefiting residents socially and psychologically.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Egypt already has limited vegetation, but Zamalek supports important biodiversity and cooler conditions than areas stripped of greenery, Moatamed says. Keeping it matters in a highly polluted city and improves environmental quality.<\/p>\n

The Arabic report cites an IQAir item dated 12 January 2026 placing Cairo among the ten most polluted cities in that reporting context. Such rankings change with period and methodology and are not a permanent global position.<\/p>\n

Loss of vegetation can increase temperatures, reduce humidity and biodiversity and intensify dust-related impacts, Moatamed argues. Financial returns alone therefore do not capture a project\u2019s environmental costs.<\/p>\n

Egypt\u2019s Constitution<\/a> protects urban green space and biological resources under Article 45 and requires preservation of the country\u2019s diverse tangible and intangible cultural heritage under Article 50. Residents and experts argue that the reported proposals must be assessed against those protections.<\/p>\n

While government statements on similar projects promise development without damage to heritage or trees, the lack of official information, a published plan or disclosed impact studies increases fears for a garden central to Cairo\u2019s history and urban identity.<\/p>\n

As the case comes before the court, Al Zahriya\u2019s future remains between investment priorities and protection of heritage and the environment\u2014a test of whether development can proceed without sacrificing historic green space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Residents seek disclosure of plans for a historic public garden, warning that commercial redevelopment could sacrifice rare trees, affordable access and Zamalek\u2019s green heritage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":15819,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[413],"tags":[],"kateb":[15844],"class_list":["post-16904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-en","kateb-yasmin-ali"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/\u062d\u062f\u064a\u0642\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0632\u0647\u0631\u064a\u0629.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16904"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16905,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16904\/revisions\/16905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16904"},{"taxonomy":"kateb","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kateb?post=16904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}