How Philae became ‘Egyptian’: UNESCO, Egypt and the engineering of World Heritage

Who has heritage been for? During the 1970s, engineers cut apart the Graeco-Roman temple complex on the Egyptian island of Philae and reassembled it on the neighbouring islet of Agilkia. This work formed the final part of UNESCO's International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, launched in 1960 in the face of flooding due to be caused by Egypt's construction of the Aswan High Dam. The campaign, which constituted a major influence on the 1972 World Heritage Convention, mobilized an international group of missions to conduct preservation and archaeological work in the contiguous regions of Egyptian and Sudanese Nubia. Much of this work reified a colonial vision of Nubia's past, with Nubians themselves forced to migrate elsewhere and ancient temples preserved in place. Yet it also materialized a solution to arguments between European and Egyptian experts. This article argues that at Philae, the Egyptian government used this situation to its advantage, recreating the colonial vision of Nubia to its own satisfaction. Using the precedent of the campaign's earlier work – and utilizing irrigation and engineering expertise garnered during the High Dam's construction – Egyptian experts argued that the Philae complex should be moved rather than kept in position using a series of dikes. That argument translated an Egyptian political and financial decision into a technical one, allowing Egypt to use heritage both to incorporate a marginal population into the state and to promote tourist development.