Skip to content
policyVerified

UNESCO lists Historic Cairo, including the Citadel of Saladin, as World Heritage

In 1979 UNESCO inscribed Historic Cairo. The Citadel of Saladin is a principal monument inside that inscription. In the causal graph this event strengthens Humanitarian Access, a driver that strengthens People Internally Displaced by Conflict and Violence (IDMC) — a worsening welfare path.

Sources: [1][2]

Read the full account

In 1979 UNESCO inscribed Historic Cairo. The Citadel of Saladin is a principal monument inside that inscription. The listing is a completed international-conservation act. It does not reopen 1176 building accounts.

Context

Listing creates duties, tourist frames, and restoration politics. Aga Khan and WMF campaigns are later instruments.

Saladin is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.

Why it matters

Conservation-access path. Medium confidence on welfare size.

Heritage listing can fund conservation and overcrowding. Split later restoration Facts.

Who was responsible

Contribution type and responsibility level for each recorded actor — not sole-author shorthand.

  • Saladin

    Person

    Direct responsibility

    responsibility level 0.2 · verified

    The fortress is Ayyubid. The World Heritage act is 1979 conservation policy.

What changed

Fact → Driver → Indicator. Relationship strength orders the paths; it is not the observed indicator movement.

Evidence

The sources behind this fact and its verification state.

Verified2 sources on file
  1. 1.Egypt Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities — Citadel of CairoMinistry of Tourism and Antiquities, Egypt · High credibility · verified
  2. 2.UNESCO — Historic CairoUNESCO World Heritage Centre · High credibility · verified
What the sources establish

UNESCO list 89 and Egypt’s citadel page independently describe the fortress inside Historic Cairo.

Established: Historic Cairo was listed in 1979 with the citadel inside the property. Not established: that listing changed a poverty series in Darb al-Ahmar by a known coefficient.

Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, and museums are not converted into extra lifetime acts. That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself. Confidence is stated on the impact path. A later English edition is not a recovered autograph. If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here.

Causal path

How this event connects to drivers and indicators in the graph.

  1. ActorSaladin
  2. contributed toFactUNESCO lists Historic Cairo, including the Citadel of Saladin, as World Heritage
  3. strengthensDriverHumanitarian Access
  4. strengthensIndicatorPeople Internally Displaced by Conflict and Violence (IDMC)

Cite this page

Factrail. (2026). UNESCO lists Historic Cairo, including the Citadel of Saladin, as World Heritage. Factrail. https://factrail.ai/facts/sa-unesco-historic-cairo-1979

https://factrail.ai/facts/sa-unesco-historic-cairo-1979

Accessed 16 October 2026.

By the Factrail desk · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed

Dispute this factNamed here, or represent someone who is? Request a right of reply.