Hossam Abdel Azeem has founded the Shawahid Misr initiative to preserve Egypt's heritage, especially neglected sites.
In doing so, he is driven by his passion for ancient places and monuments and his knowledge of them.
Abdel Azeem began his heritage preservation career in 2020, when he started working on the 900-year-old Fatimid dome, known as the Al-Haswati Dome, located in the graveyard of Imam el-Shafi'I in southern Cairo.
"With help from a group of my colleagues interested in Egyptian heritage, I was able to remove piles of rubbish from the place within 7 hours only," Abdel Azeem told Majalla.
He and his colleagues took many paths to fulfil their goal of breathing new life into archaeological sites which had been neglected for years.
Some of the sites had been neglected and turned into rubbish dumps, which obscured their historical identity and value.
Abdel Azeem and his colleagues filed a request to the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities to clean archaeological sites on a voluntary basis.
They hoped the same sites would be reopened to the members of the public and tourists after being cleaned.
To their utter surprise, the Ministry approved their request and gave them permission to work on a number of neglected sites.
Abdel Azeem and his colleagues brooked no delay in acting. They immediately started working on some of the sites as part of their campaign.
"We formulated a time plan for cleaning each of the sites in 24 hours," Abdel Azeem said.
This opened a new chapter in Abdel Azeem's life, one in which he pursued his passion to the full.
He launched the Cairo Biography initiative to preserve ancient sites in Cairo.
Four sites have already been cleaned following the initiative, which brought these sites back to life.
The initiative also cleaned a large number of other sites, including Al-Hasawati Dome in the graveyard of Imam Al-Shafi’i, the Sabil of Prince Sheikho Al-Omari in Al-Hataba, the Sabil of Prince Hassan Agha Arzincan in Taht al-Raba' Street, Zawiya (small mosque) of Sheikh Hassan Al-Roumi in Al-Hataba (the first to be built in the Ottoman era), Dome of Arkmas al-Ashrafy, which was constructed during the reign of Sultan Qansuh Abu Said (opposite to Zawiya of Hassan al-Roumi).
Abdel Azeem described Shawahid Misr initiative as a 'complementary step' to the Cairo Biography initiative.
"All those operating within these initiatives are volunteers who are deeply interested in antiquities," Abdel Azeem said.
He said his initiatives welcome new volunteers who want to participate in the cleaning of ancient sites.
The initiatives, he said, train newcomers in dealing with archaeological sites and historical collectibles.
Apart from cleaning ancient sites, Shawahid Misr initiative educates the members of the public about the importance of protecting these sites.
After finalizing its work in the different sites, the initiative also submits a full report to the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities about the condition of these sites after the cleaning process.
The initiative then submits a request to the Ministry to reopen the cleaned sites for the members of the public and tourists.
"Sometimes we ask the Ministry to restore certain sites that need a restoration process," Abdel Azeem said.
The initiative did this in the case of the Sabil Agha Mustafsan. It said that the site needs urgent restoration before it is reopened to the public.
Two of the sites sponsored by Shawahid Misr initiative, namely the Sabil of Prince Shekho in Al-Hataba and the Dome of Qansuh Abu Said, were reopened after their restoration by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
