Written by Natalya Stanke, Tessa Litecky, and Elisabeth Koch (2025)

INtroduction

Just a block south of Tahrir Square in the heart of Cairo lies the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE). Since 1948, ARCE has served as a powerful force for conservation, education, and historical research within Egypt. The archive and library collections cover 7,000 years of Egyptian history, including prehistoric Pharaonic, Coptic, Islamic, and more contemporary materials. The ARCE Conservation Archives are a resource for researchers interested in the dynamics of preserving Egyptian cultural heritage. Primarily implemented with USAID grant funding, conservation projects began in the early 1990s and continued until the latest project’s completion in 2018.

Note that the Conservation Archives are separate from ARCE’s Marilyn M. and William Kelly Simpson Library.

The Archives are open Sunday through Thursday from 8:30am–4:30pm. The Archives are closed for official American and Egyptian holidays. Ramadan may also affect working hours.

Location: Google Maps

GOING THERE

The ARCE Conservation Archives are housed in the Archives room of the ARCE Cairo Office, which is located one block south of Tahrir Square on Símon Bolívar Square in the Garden City neighborhood of Cairo, near Abd el-Qader Hamza Street. The closest metro stop is Sadat station. If coming from the metro, take the Qasr al Nil exit. The building is U-shaped and faces the Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) and the InterContinental Cairo Semiramis Hotel. When facing the building from Símon Bolívar Square, enter through the right side and ARCE is located on the first floor. Upon arrival, ring the doorbell and wait for reception to greet and assist. The building contains an elevator, however there are approximately ten staggered outdoor steps that researchers must take to reach the elevator. 

GETTING IN

All materials are freely accessible in person through appointment with the Archives staff. ARCE membership status does not impact researcher access to material.

To schedule an appointment, email archives@arce.org.

Finding your material

To find your material, you can search the online catalog of the ARCE Conservation Archives. For more information, don’t hesitate to contact the Archives staff who has access to an internal database system recorded all collection materials.

Physical materials are assigned an alphabetic and numeric combination which corresponds to the grant project identifier. Materials are then organized by grant identifier and material format in the Archives space.

Collection overview

The collection consists of 88 conservation projects, each containing photographic and written material. The conservation sites cover a wide range of Egyptian history spanning over 7,000 years. Geographically and historically diverse, the projects include Pharaonic, Coptic, Islamic, and other Egyptian cultural heritage sites. Some examples include Theban tombs TT50, TT69, and TT110, and TT120, the Roman wall paintings at Luxor Temple, The Red Monastery, and Bab Zuwayla. Project work includes training, structural preservation, wall paintings conservation, and historical and archaeological documentation. 

The collection contains photographic 35mm and 120mm color and black & white slides, born-digital images, technical reports and various grant-related documentation, in addition to a select number of project artifacts and architectural drawings. There are around 100,000 photographic slides, 200,000 images, 1,200 documents, 1,000 drawings, as well as a small selection of artifacts and multimedia content. 

Ordering your material

Approach the Archives staff to order your material.

Ordering scans

All ARCE Conservation Archives material and copyright belongs to ARCE and USAID but is freely available for public research under the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)Creative Commons license.

All images and documents on the website are available for download in medium-high resolution. ARCE is in possession of the highest resolution original images, which are available upon request.

To request additional reproductions or find out more about ARCE’s usage policies, email archives@arce.org.

Food and well-being

There are numerous restaurants and cafes located within the Garden City district and neighboring downtown area that fit within a wide range of budget options. Archives staff can provide suggestions upon request.

Originally published on Hazine.