As a new AUC campus emerges in New Cairo, Nevine El-Aref probes the destiny of the university's legendary downtown building The main campus of the American University in Cairo (AUC) has been a landmark in Tahrir Square for more than 80 years, its exquisite Fatimid-style architecture dominating the landscape of the square and the attention of passers-by. However, as the new AUC building emerges in New Cairo, some 40 kilometres east of the university's present location, rumours about the future of the historic building are rife. Word is circulating that a wealthy Egyptian businessman has taken an interest in the property, and even that the campus will become the new premises of the Israeli Embassy in Cairo. AUC president David D Arnold, annoyed by the stories that have been spreading all over Egypt and have even appeared in the press, has denied all the tittle-tattle. He has announced that, as part of the university's transition to a new campus, AUC's Board of Trustees has voted to pursue the sale of the university's Greek Campus and the Rare Books and Special Collections Library in downtown Tahrir, as well as the hostel in Zamalek. "The university is not selling the buildings on the main campus, including the Ewart Memorial Hall and the new Falaki building," Arnold said. Early this week the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) declared the main building an Islamic monument listed on Egypt's Antiquities List. The action was described by some archaeologists and intellectuals as "brilliant", since it will preserve the edifice's distinguished architecture and its genuine decorative elements should any unpredicted event take place in the future. For his part SCA Secretary-General Zahi Hawass told Al-Ahram Weekly that the AUC's main campus architecture had been finely executed in the Fatimid style. It includes mashrabiya (wooden lattice work) windows, wooden ceilings decorated with geometrical and foliage paintings, and stained glass lamps inlaid with copper edges. The building's legendary history began in the 19th century. Before becoming the AUC's main campus it was the residential palace of Ahmed Khayri Pasha, the head of Khedive Ismail's divan. In the late 1890s it was bought by the Greek businessman Nestor Gianaclis, who converted the building into a tobacco factory. Gianaclis remodelled the building so effectively that it not only won honourable mention at the Chicago World Fair in 1896, but also set the property on the road towards its conversion to the Egyptian University in 1908. It officially became AUC property in 1919.
