Minister of Antiquities Khaled Al-Anany visited Al-Zaher Baybars Mosque in Cairo to continue its restoration and rehabilitation works which has been suspended for several years. Dr. Al-Anani praised the national role of the Arab Contractors Company on reserving this important monument since 2011 till now. He thanked Eng. Mohsen Salah – Chairman & CEO of the Arab Contractors Company for the role of his company. The minister declared to the mass media that the restoration work of the Al-Zaher Baybars mosque is a huge project because the bad construction condition and the presence of underground water due to the low level of the mosque about 3 meters. He stated that the construction of a new mosque is easier than the restoration of the mosque for its current bad condition which requires highly technical staff exiting in the Arab Contractors Company working to execute the project with the highest accuracy and technicality. He pointed out that the renovation work will be completed within 18 months and its cost will exceed 100 million EGP. He stated that there is a huge dome is designed for the mosque. The minaret will be reinstalled for the mosque to come to its original form. Kazakhstan Ambassador to Cairo expressed his happiness that the AC will carry out this project as one of the mega contracting companies in the region and has a great experience in this filed. Eng. Mohsen Salah said that the AC is keen to achieve the original shape and architectural style of the mosque, and it is important for us to preserve the historic character of the mosque and achieve its original form. The Minister was accompanied by Mr. Mohammed Abou Hamed - the Parliamentarian Member, Dr. Moustafa Wazeery – the General Secretariat of the Supreme Council for Antiquities, General Hisham Samir Ibrahim - Assistant Minister of Antiquities for Engineering Affairs, Mr. Mohammed Abdel Aziz – General Manager of the Historical Cairo Project, Eng. Emam Afify – AC Vice Chairman, Eng. Tarek Khedr – Head of Construction and Specialized Works Sector and Manager of Monument Restoration Department and Eng. Mahmoud Abdel Fattah – the Deputy Manager of Monument Restoration Department. It is a noteworthy that Al-Zaher Baybars was a military leader and one of the prominent Mamluk sultans and he is the most significant one of them. His era witnessed a huge architectural and educational renaissance in addition to his military victories. He started the establishment of his mosque on 13th March 1267 and its was inaugurated on June 1269. The mosque in built on a huge area reached about 22000 m2. It was planned according to the style of the traditional mosques on resemblance of the Prophet's Mosque (Al Masjid Al Nabawi). The mosque is consisting of a middle open courtyard surrounded by aisles on all four sides; the biggest one is Al Qebla Porch. The heights of the facades reached 11m interspersed with prominent pillars for wall strengthen. The mosque has 3 monumental entrances, the largest of which is on the northwestern wall above of it the remains of the minaret which was exist till the coming of the French Campaign to Egypt. The other entrances are side ones on the southwestern and northeastern facades.