The headquarters of the National Democratic Party, the political group behind former Egyptian president Hosni Mumarak is to be demolished and the land be given to the Egyptian Museum Cairo, Egypt’s cabinet decided yesterday.
The NDP Building had suffered major damages during the Jan 2011 revolution that ousted Mubarak. Having been abandoned and in a bad condition, many voices supporting its demolition had been raised, several of which voiced by Egyptian Museum authorities and archaeological community members supporting the return of the land to the Museum. According to insiders, the ruined building’s presence next to the museum formed an everyday danger for the venue where a group of world’s most important antiquities are kept. Documents held at the Egyptian Registry and Land Survey Authority show that the riverfront piece of property where the NDP building is raised was originally part of the museum when it was built in 1901.
The cabinet’s recent decision on the building, however, has been forwarded as an independent choice based on the land’s pre-building status as a cargo dock for boats transporting antiquities down river from Luxor, Aswan and the rest of Upper Egypt for restoration and display at the museum.
After the building’s demolition, the land is to be turned into a ‘garden’ or ‘park’associated with the museum.