The Mogamma (Arabic: مجمع التحرير, also spelled ''Mugamma'', roughly translated as 'the complex') is a government building in Cairo, Egypt. The Mogamma was the result of a series of master plans for the Qasr el Nil area (now Tahrir Square), which used to be occupied by the British barracks. In 1945 when King Farouk 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), 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 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 Mohamed Kamal Ismail (محمد كمال اسماعيل) (born; 13 September 1908 - 2 August 2008) was an Egyptian architect. Career His most prominent work is the expansion of the Great Mosque of Mecca and Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, as well as The Mog ...

, who also designed the

High Court of Egypt High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift to ...

's building, and planned the expansion of the Great Mosque of Mecca 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)'', 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''), Retrieved December 13, 2010 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 The Ministry of Social Solidarity is the government body responsible for providing social safety networks for Egypt's most vulnerable citizens. Nivine El-Qabbage is its current minister after the previous minister Ghada Waly. Its vision is to red ...

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