The conservation and rehabilitation of the Historical City of Asyut in Egypt

The city of Asyut, which is located 380 kilometers in the south of Cairo, is one of the earliest historical settlements of Egypt. In the city, there can be found several valuable urban cultural heritages. The political and social changes, having occurred after the establishing of the Republic in 1952, have caused these cultural heritages to be neglected and finally to collapse. Similarly, the economic expansion, having been experienced in the 1970?s, has increased the development pressure on the historical districts of the city and has caused a further part of these heritages to disappear. The fact that today still no plan or methodology has been developed towards the conservation of the hitorical district and that no comprehensive determination and registration study in respect of these historical structures has been executed will cause the remaining heritages of the city to disappear. In general, the present study aims at developing a methodology intended to determine the fundamental principles and methods towards the documentation, conservation and rehabilitation of the urban cultural heritages in the city of Asyut. In order to ensure this study to reach its goal, the historical and the physical developments of the traditional urban fabrics of the city have been investigated, on the basis of which the explicit criteria required for determination and registration have been introduced and the borders of the historical regions that should be taken under protection have been specified. After the field surveys that have been performed on historical regions, historical structures that should be protected have been determined and a catalogue for the urban cultural heritages belonging to the city has been constituted. Furthermore, the present status for the protection of urban cultural heritages located in Egypt generally and in the city of Asyut specifically has been analyzed. Through this analysis, the changes that the traditional urban fabric in the city has undergone and reasons of these changes have been designated. Besides, the study has approached the analysis of the efforts to take the historical structure in the city under protection and the encountered problems. In the study, some groups of fundamental criteria those are applicable in the rehabilitation of the historical districts in the city of Asyut have been examined and a series of suggestions have been put forward in relation to the conservation and rehabilitation of the historical district. Keywords: Egypt, Asyut, historical environment, traditional fabric, inventory form, urban cultural heritage, conservation, rehabilitation.