Preservation of Saint George’s Church at Cairo, Egypt

Abstract

Saint George’s church is characterized as one of the most important monuments of Greek Orthodoxy heritage at Egypt. The church is a unique and massive building complex combining the elements of a number of different structural systems constructed at different periods of time. More specific, there were three major periods of construction that influence present behavior: Roman period, 1909 construction and 1941 reconstruction. Although the subsurface conditions are not very favorable (man-made materials with significant thickness), this paper presents the ability of the building to resist the potential impacts caused by dewatering operation taking into account the prevailing geological and geotechnical conditions, since cracks and local failures were observed mainly during the fluctuations of Nile River and during the dewatering process. Finally, the estimated settlements from previous reports were reconsidered and monitoring methods recommended.