On one of the last patches of land along the Nile River in central Cairo, Egypt is constructing Africa’s tallest building. In a difficult feat of engineering, the project will twist from a thin triangular base to form a rectangular tower, rising 70 stories and providing a panoramic view of the Nile River and the pyramids. The 300-meter project is meant as a monument with a message: after years of instability, Egypt is ready for investment. Designed by the late architect Zaha Hadid in 2007, the “Nile Tower” will be part of a plan to transform the area between downtown Cairo and the Nile River into an upscale district. The bill for the project is set at $600 million, though it’s likely to cost nearly $150 million more, according to Diaa Tantawy, the Design Manager at Living in Interiors, the company developing the building. As Egypt pushes through economic reforms, the Egyptian pound has weakened, making imported building materials significantly more expensive. And yet despite the cost, developers are breaking ground, because the construction sector is crucial to driving growth in the domestic economy and is key to the government’s plan for successful reforms. Currently, there are 1,400 active construction projects in Egypt, valued at $248.2 billion. The project was first championed a decade ago under former President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak, but was put on hold in the aftermath of the revolution that ousted him from office in 2011. Now the building has gained support from current President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is working with the developer to get proper clearance for design aspects like the building’s height. In terms of making the scheme financially viable, the development is seeking investors from across Europe. The Nile Tower is meant to transmit a message of growth outside the country. Says Tantawy, “It will change how the whole world sees Egypt. We are now strong, the leader of Africa and the Middle East, you can invest with us.” According to the project’s current plan, the top 36 floors will be apartments, the middle 18 floors will be a hotel with approximately 230 rooms, and the remaining floors below will be reserved for amenities like a casino, night club, spa, health club and shopping area. The building is designed with a glass façade in front, and shades in the back, shielding tenants from the development. Over the next few years, the Maspero sector is slated to become the “new modern Cairo.” However, the Nile Tower also shows that this new Cairo has roots in the past. As projects planned before the revolution rise into the sky, development plans are picking up where it left off.

Plans to rebuild one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the Pharos Lighthouse, have been approved by Egyptian authorities. The feat of ancient engineering, which is also known as the Lighthouse of Alexandria, was completed around 280BC, and is estimated to have been 130 meters high. The plan is to rebuild the lighthouse a few meters away from where it once stood in the coastal city of Alexandria, as the original location is now occupied by the Qaitbay Citadel, the Cairo Post reports. Egypt's permanent committee on antiquities has approved the proposal and now it's just down to the Alexandria's regional government to sign-off on it, according to Dr. Mostafa Amin, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. The Pharos Lighthouse was one of the most famous structures of the ancient world. "The original building comprised three stages: a lower square section with a central core, a middle octagonal section and a circular section at its top," archaeology professor Fathy Khourshid tells the Cairo Post. It guided ships using a mirror during the daytime, and a fire at night. The lighthouse suffered damage during a series of earthquakes and is believed to have been destroyed by one in the early 14th Century.

The Egyptian government has announced plans to build a new capital to the east of the present one, Cairo. The project would cost US$ 45 billion and take 5 to 7 years to complete. This announcement was made on March 13 at an investment conference that aims to revive the Egyptian economy. The new city will be built by Capital City Partners, a private real estate investment fund led by Emirati Mohamed Alabbar. Dubai businessman Mr Alabbar built the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. According to planners, the proposed city's site is situated along the corridor between Cairo and the Red Sea, providing linkages to significant shipping routes. The new city - the name of which has not been revealed - is planned to be built over 700 square kilometers with 200 square kilometers of preserved natural areas and house about 5 million residents. According to the brochure, there will be exactly 21 residential districts, 40 thousand hotel rooms, 700 kindergartens and schools, 663 hospitals and clinics, 1,250 mosques and churches, and 1.1 million homes housing and one of the largest city park systems in the world. The new capital of Egypt designed by SOM (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP) architectural and design company. Especially on the project worked architects Phillip Enquist, Daniel Ringelstein, George J. Efstathiou. According to SOM the new city will be compact in urban form and anchored by concentrated development districts, including a central business district, a government administrative district, a cultural district, a knowledge and innovation district, and a residential neighborhoods. Every neighborhood will be centered on a community public space surrounded by local shops, schools, religious buildings, and civic amenities. SOM City Design Practice Director Daniel Ringelstein mentioned that the future city will strengthen and diversify Egypt's economic potential by creating attractive new places to live, work, and welcome the world. This is very ambitious and significant project, but many doubt whether it will become a reality. According to Guardian, in Egypt, even the best urban plans have tended to go awry. Egypt has a history of building unfinished towns in the desert, the product of a decades-old belief that satellite developments will curb overcrowding in its main cities. In theory, the strategy is based in logic: around 96% of Egyptians live on just 4% of Egyptian land, and as the population mushrooms, relocating some of the former might solve the congestion in the latter. But experience, time and again, has suggested otherwise. These 22 existing "new towns" - some of them more than 30 years old - still collectively hold little more than a million residents, and contain thousands of empty homes. Far from Cairo's madding crowds, they are in theory an attractive prospect for many Egyptians. But in practice, most cannot afford to move there.

Archaeologists unveiled a restored colossal statue of Amenhotep III that was toppled in an earthquake 3200 years ago at Egypt's famed temple city of Luxor. The statue showing him in a striding attitude was re-erected on the northern gate of the king's funerary temple on the west bank of the Nile. The temple is already famous for its existing 3400-year-old Memnon colossi -twin statues of Amenhotep III whose reign archaeologists say marked the political and cultural zenith of ancient Egyptian civilization. The 12.9-meter statue stands west of an existing effigy of the king, also depicting him walking, which was unveiled in March. The restored statue consists of 89 large pieces and numerous small fragments and reassembled since November, the monolith weighs 110 tons. The statue shows the king wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt, and each hand holding a papyrus roll inscribed with his name. His belt, holding a dagger with a falcon-head handle, is fastened with a rectangular clasp bearing the names of the king. Sources: www.theguardian.com; www.abc.net.au; www.globalpost.com

The oldest pyramid in Egypt, the Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, is being destroyed by the very company the Egyptian government has hired to restore it. The roughly 4.600-year-old structure has been in trouble since an earthquake hit the region in 1992, but in a difficult political and economic climate for the country, those now tasked with preserving the pyramid are doing more harm than good. Egyptian activists claim the company, Shurbagy, doesn't even have the necessary experience to be undertaking the work in the first place, and they have launched a campaign against the Minister of Antiquities, Mamdouh al-Damaty, claiming a "full-fledged crime" has been committed. The crime in question is the breach of building regulations related to the restoration of ancient structures. Amir Gamal, a representative of the 'Non-stop Robberies' movement, states: "Technically, the company and officials of the Supreme Council of Antiquities committed a full-fledged crime. New walls were built outside the pyramid as if the pyramid were a modern construction, which is opposite to international standards of restoration, which prevents adding more than 5 percent of construction to antiquities if necessary." Furthermore, the additions are putting pressure on the structure, putting it at risk of collapse. The limestone step pyramid was originally 62 meters high. Inside is a network of corridors, as well as a granite and marble burial chamber. When the earthquake struck in 1992, large quantities of stone rained down into the center of the pyramid, creating a void at the top and the pyramid was in danger of total collapse. At that time, archaeologist Peter James's company installed an internally supported PVC balloon-like structure, which was inflated and filled with water to support the pyramid from within. In time it was hoped that the stone would be reinforced with steel rods to restore the building to its previous profile. But funding ran out, then political instability set in. In October 2012, the Ministry of Antiquities announced work had stopped on the site because they were unable to pay contractors. Work has since resumed under the responsibility of Shurbagy, but the company has already been responsible for the "major deterioration and collapse" of a whole section of the pyramid. The company has also not completed any one of the six previous construction contracts they have committed to in the last nine years. Adds Gamal, "The company has never restored any archaeological site. All projects it had were to create modern construction at archaeological sites." The pyramid and the Saqqara complex were designed by the engineer-architect Imhotep, and are beleived to be the world's oldest cut stone monuments. With the stepped Pyramid of Djoser marking the turning point from flat-roofed construction to the age of the pyramids in Egypt, it is a tragedy that such an important archaeological legacy could be destroyed by incompetence and lack of adequate funding.