El Mogamma: Administrative Complex, Tahrir Square (Cairo)

El-Mogamma: National government Administrative Complex, forming the south side of Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo. It is a huge and massive curved building, in the Soviet socialist style as it was given as a gift to the last Egyptian monarchy by the Soviet Union. The Mogamma building began construction in 1950, and was completed in 1952, just before the Egypt independence revolution and becoming a republic.

The Mogamma is the center of many government bureaucracies "pushing much paper" for a multitude of necessary permits, applications, approvals, authorized documents, visas, etc. for Egyptian citizens and foreigners alike. This is where foreigner tourists must to go to extend visas. It has a reputation for laborious inefficiency that frustrates many needing services within it.

The Mogamma is periodically rumored to be closed, to be replaced by a new administrative center with computers instead of the double-thick ledgers in use here. As of 2011 it remains in operation, and has been seen worldwide as a backdrop to views of the pro-democracy protest demonstrations in adjacent Tahrir Square.

Mogamma anecdotes:
Services could take so long (and the lines could be even longer) that there is concession service from uniformed waiters in the hallways. A wonderfully rich and convoluted experience, but not for the faint of heart, claustrophobic or those short on time or patience.
*Washington Post story (www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/2...
*Egyptian tourism page (www.touregypt.net/featurestories/mugamma.htm).
 office buildingadministrative buildingfederal government
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mogamma
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Coordinates:  30°2'32"N 31°14'8"E
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Comments

  • Thank God they are closing this useless place, it's long over due.
  • The embelam of the Egyptian outdated burecracy.
This article was last modified 13 years ago