The Mogamma (Arabic: مجمع التحرير, also spelled ''Mugamma'', roughly translated as 'the complex') is a government building in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

. The Mogamma was the result of a series of master plans for the Qasr el Nil area (now

Tahrir Square Tahrir Square ( ar, ميدان التحرير ', , English language, English: Liberation Square), also known as "Martyr Square", is a major public town square in downtown Cairo, Egypt. The square has been the location and focus for political dem ...

), which used to be occupied by the British barracks. In 1945 when

King Farouk Farouk I (; ar, فاروق الأول ''Fārūq al-Awwal''; 11 February 1920 – 18 March 1965) was the tenth ruler of Egypt from the Muhammad Ali dynasty and the penultimate King of Egypt and the Sudan, succeeding his father, Fuad I, in 193 ...

ordered the demolition of the barracks upon the departure of British troops from the area, a series of urban planning proposals ensued. The idea for a centralised, all-in-one administrative building emerged from the 1945 plans. Construction began in 1946, and ended in 1949. The building's style reflects typical 1940s modernism, and government buildings in the same style can be found in Buffalo, New York (

Buffalo City Hall Buffalo City Hall is the seat for municipal government in the City of Buffalo, New York. Located at 65 Niagara Square, the 32-story Art Deco building was completed in 1931 by Dietel, Wade & Jones. The building is one of the largest and talle ...

), and Paris. Contrary to popular belief, there is no Soviet association or inspiration, and the building was not constructed by the government of Egypt's second President,

Gamal Abdel Nasser Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein, . (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian politician who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and introduced far-re ...

. Indeed, Nasser did not become the leader of Egypt until November 1954, several years after the building was completed. The Mogamma is located in

downtown Cairo Downtown Cairo ( arz, وسط البلد '' "middle of town")'', has been the urban center of Cairo, Egypt, since the late 19th century, when the district was designed and built. History Downtown Cairo was designed by prestigious French archit ...

to the south of Tahrir Square, which was, at the time, the newly designed "Liberation Square".

Function

The Mogamma is an administrative governmental building, where all paper work is done by government agencies. For example, one can go there to process documents, get a driver's license, or be issued a visa. The governmental agencies that are located in the building include the Tax Evasion Investigations Offices, the Fire Fighting Organization, and the Passport Offices. The 14-story building is 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 , native_name_lang = ar , religious_affiliation = Islam , image = Al-Haram mosque - Flickr - Al Jazeera English.jpg , image_upright = 1.25 , caption = Aerial view of the Great Mosque of Mecca , map ...

and

Al-Masjid an-Nabawi Al-Masjid an-Nabawi (), known in English as the Prophet's Mosque, is a mosque built by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the city of Medina in the Al Madinah Province of Saudi Arabia. It was the second mosque built by Muhammad in Medina, after Qub ...

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 - have around four thousand employees.

The Mogamma in cinema

The Mogamma has appeared in several Egyptian movies, the most famous one being ''Al-irhab wal Kebab (

Terrorism and Kebab ''Terrorism and Kebab'' ( ar, الإرهاب والكباب, transliterated: Al-irhab wal kabab) is a popular 1992 Egyptian black comedy film starring Adel Emam.Hedges, Chris (18 November 1992).Cairo Journal; That's Entertainment. But Is It Blasp ...

)'', 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.(9 October 2005)
Red tape Mecca on its way out
''

Reading Eagle The ''Reading Eagle'' is the major daily newspaper in Reading, Pennsylvania. A family-owned newspaper until the spring of 2019, its reported circulation is 37,000 (daily) and 50,000 (Sundays). It serves the Reading and Berks County region of Pe ...

'' (from ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

''), Retrieved December 13, 2010 In 2016, the government announced its plan to reduce congestion in the

Downtown Cairo Downtown Cairo ( arz, وسط البلد '' "middle of town")'', has been the urban center of Cairo, Egypt, since the late 19th century, when the district was designed and built. History Downtown Cairo was designed by prestigious French archit ...

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 Abbassia ( ar, العباسية ) is a neighbourhood in Cairo, Egypt. The Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, Cairo is located in Abbassia. The medical faculty of Ain Shams University and its affiliate hospital units are located in Ab ...

. 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 2011 Egyptian revolution, also known as the 25 January revolution ( ar, ثورة ٢٥ يناير; ), began on 25 January 2011 and spread across Egypt. The date was set by various youth groups to coincide with the annual Egyptian "Police ho ...

, the Mogamma was closed on account of the

sit-in A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more people occupying an area for a protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change. The protestors gather conspicuously in a space or building, refusing to mo ...

in Tahrir Square. A second sit-in in Tahrir Square, beginning on 8 July 2011, also included a blockade of the Mogamma.

References