Qena mosque whose minaret collapsed is not on Egyptian heritage list, says official

Nevine El-Aref , Sunday 3 Jun 2018

minaret
part of the collapsed minaret

A nearly 300-year-old mosque whose minaret collapsed in Qena governorate on Sunday morning is not on the country’s antiquities list, the Supreme Council of Antiquities has said.

Several websites and social media platforms published articles about the collapsed minaret of El-Tayeb Mosque in the city of Qus, accusing the Ministry of Antiquities of negligence. 

Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, denied blame and asserted in a press release that the minaret and the mosque were not registered on Egypt’s antiquities list for Islamic monuments because they did not meet the required archaeological criteria and standards. 

Gamal Mostafa, head of the Islamic, Coptic and Jewish Antiquities Department at the antiquities ministry told Ahram Online that the minaret was the oldest architectural element of the mosque, and in 2005 the Ministry of Endowments rebuilt the mosque due to its bad construction and architectural condition.

Al-Ahram Arabic reported the mosque was originally built in 1147 AH (1734-5 AD).

 
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