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This paper focuses on the morphological transformations of Cairo's historic cemeteries that currently form a significant part of historic Cairo designated by the UNESCO as a world heritage site. Cairo's historic cemetery continues to be a main burial ground for the city reflecting layers of funeral epochs. Besides offering burial grounds, Cairo's city of the dead had always hosted living functions including residential and crafts among other activities.

Adopting a historico-geographical approach, this study traces morphological transformations of the eastern necropolis of Cairo. Using analysis of archival documents, cartographic and photographic analysis of the eastern necropolis, the study detects changes on three major aspects: (1) impacts of the ever-growing urban city core; (2) transformation of the cemetery's internal urban fabric and (3) change of the size of the residential urban block inside the cemetery.

Findings highlight alarming transformations on the said aspects, threatening the historic value and the urban integrity of Cairo's eastern necropolis. This calls for rising necessities of documentation projects for Cairo's necropolis, as well as urgent necessity of strict applications of local laws of urban conservation.

Despite their rich urban variety, cemeteries have been rarely investigated within the scope of urban morphology. This paper is among the few works that investigate cemeteries using tools and approaches of urban morphology. It also calls for further applications of morphological investigations and wider adoption of morphological approaches for the study of historic cemeteries in order to support their preservation.

According to the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) report of heritage at risk for 2011–2013, Cairo is facing serious conservation challenges after the revolution of 2011, witnessing aggressive cultural heritage vandalism. A marginalized inaccessible heritage site is considered one of the most vulnerable cultural assets. Existing studies focused on safeguarding accessible historical centers while insufficient attention is given to marginalized inaccessible heritage sites. The paper questions: how far the reaccess is preventive conservation action acting against possible encroachments? And if accessibility could stand as the key player promoting networks of marginal heritage landscapes, facilitating documentation and rehabilitation programs.

The research adopts both analytical and experimental approaches. The former departs from cartographic studies and systematic contextual surveys carried out in March 2017 and was updated in July 2019 concerning the delimitation of historic Cairo. It concludes by mapping marginal heritage besides classifying their value significance, urban risks and causes of inaccessibility. The latter phase structures a framework guiding accessibility interventions of marginal heritage and examines its applicability through a cross-case comparison between four sites while proposing accessibility interventions strategies.

Finally, the study offers a comprehensive assessment model for the new interventions measuring the contextual, economic, social and administrative influences of accessibility.

The framework is considered a decision-making tool defining marginalized heritage areas with the highest priorities of enactments. The study aims to facilitate the mission of governors, policymakers and experts in conserving problematic urban heritage through soft transformations.

Both the framework and the assessment model are based on social empowerment and involvement within different phases of design, management and monitoring plans.

It aims to perform new urban codification representing the contemporary identity of marginal heritage landscape in developing countries challenging heritage vandalism. It enables reconfiguring the delimitation of historic Cairo through proposing new parameters and guidelines.

In last year, the innovations in shipbuilding and logistics have opened the walled towns of Mediterranean port cities to cruise tourism and other culture-led regeneration strategies. Thus, walled towns in Mediterranean port cities have a particular development potential which questions about the opportunities and risks connected to any comprehensive regeneration strategy with a cultural and tourist purpose, especially for fortified systems whose continuity has been undermined. The paper aims to provide some guidelines for policy-makers and planners in port cities which have decided or are deciding to develop a comprehensive strategy and a knowledge framework for the walled town similar to those already adopted for fortified sites in the World Heritage List.

The paper investigates on the opportunities and risks connected to any comprehensive regeneration strategy with a cultural and tourist purpose for the walled towns through a comparative analysis of four Mediterranean seaport cities, selected as case studies. Cities which have developed an integrated strategy to inscribe their walled towns to the UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

On the base of the case studies’ analysis, the paper proposes a critical reflection upon the management strategies for the UNESCO’s walled towns and supports a better understating of context factors as a way to strengthen the HUL approach when applied to Mediterranean seaport cities.

The paper sheds light on the application of the historic urban landscape approach to the walled towns of Mediterranean seaport cities. The paper is original because it provides: guidelines for policy-makers and planners in walled towns of Mediterranean seaport cities which have decided or are deciding to develop a comprehensive regeneration strategy for the city centre in line with those adopted in UNESCO’s fortified sites; a critical reflection upon the context factors which can strengthen the HUL approach when applied to Mediterranean seaport cities; criteria to update the HUL approach by UNESCO in analysing the conservation state, the managerial aspects, the participation and social aspects of walled towns.

Ancient Egyptian studies, as a formal academic discipline, originated in the 19th century. Besides being of great fascination to scholars, ancient Egypt has also been of much interest to the general public, due to the deep sense of wonder, grandeur, and mystery that the extant monuments and artifacts have evoked, and still continue to evoke.

Indigenous governance systems in Africa provide a nuanced approach to the various philosophies that underpin governance structures through a spiritual perspective. In this chapter we debunk colonial narratives of Africa's dependence on colonial constructs of governance. We begin by highlighting the decentralized and centralized Indigenous governance frameworks practiced by different African communities. Communities with decentralized systems such as the Acholi, Luo, Keiyo, amongst others, were well organized at the local level, with the Council of Elders, Chief Priests, and Moral Elders and Chiefs carrying out various functions that ensured the community remained stable and prosperous. In centralized communities, the king had authority over their boundaries. The key aspects that stood out and ensured stability within the centralized systems included community representation, participation in governance, and checks and balances that provided proper societal growth as exemplified by the Bunyoro-Kitara and the Ashanti kingdoms. Even though the governance systems were quite different, the governance mechanisms had similar pillars, features, and principles anchored by humanism, communism, and the spiritual nature of governance amongst the African peoples. We concur that the Indigenous governance system allowed citizens, empires, and kingdoms to flourish. We conclude that African people can further develop the capacity to manage their ideas, resources, and opportunities for sustainable development, through Indigenous governance mechanisms and knowledge systems. We argue that African societies need to legally integrate the Indigenous governance systems in the current prevalent western governance model, create canters for researching Indigenous knowledge at the institutions of higher learning, and that civil society should play a role in ensuring accountability in governance systems.

‘Javanese culture’ often is associated with ‘patrimonialism’ at its worst, that is, as a prelude to predation. Yet a closer look at some of the well-known court-centred serat (mystical songs) and babad (chronicles) written in Central Java during the late 18th and the 19th centuries provide us with a very different picture. Pujangga (court-poets) crafted sophisticated imaginings of the negara: the State, or rather the domain of both moral and political authority. In territorial terms, they made a distinction between what the ruler could freely dispose of and what he could not alienate. Moreover, the very process of the imperial expansion of the negara under the reign of Sultan Agung (r. 1613–1646) led to the birth of a group of ‘government specialists’: the service nobility of the priyayi. This group held a view of legitimate authority running contrary to any despotic temptation: for the priyayi, exercising power was an art, a craft involving skills that had to be learnt, whereas for the para bangsawan (members of the blood nobility), power was something to be possessed by virtue of the fame of a family name. Yet, during the colonial period, Dutch Orientalists, colonial administrators and high-ranking Javanese Regents came to give a wholly distorted view of this old priyayi conception of power, turning it into the cultural alibi of imperial authoritarianism.

MY reaction to being appointed Director of Library Services would be one of frank amazement, rather as if I had been a commercial traveller in a rather dubious line of trade, such as ladies' underwear, who had suddenly been offered a bishopric. The recovery from this amazement would take about ten seconds flat and I would doubtless find myself in the thick of finding an office, a desk, a rubber plant and a regulation‐size piece of carpet appropriate to my grade. My first real task would be to bring some order to the seven sections of the D.E.S. now dealing with library matters and to initiate among librarians generally some radical thinking on the problems that face us all.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the opportunity of utilizing Tang dynasty history, heritage, buildings and names in the effort to place brand the contemporary city Xi'an.

The paper presents a conceptual framework for place branding cities consisting of two main dimensions. The first describes the continuum of functional versus emotional values within a city; the second measures the degree to which the image of a place is historical or contemporary. The paper then employs historical analysis to examine the meaning and construction of a Tang dynasty brand for place branding twenty‐first century Xi'an.

While Xi'an may possess an illustrious historical identity, the contemporary city is still searching for an image. Xi'an's glorious heritage attracts considerable tourism, but has not yet drawn substantial business, foreign direct investment or talents to contribute to and support economic development of the metropolitan region.

Historical analysis of a city can allow a reconstruction of identity in the modern context. Since this is a case study of one key Chinese city, additional cases are needed for other historically important cities to see their influence on business and marketing development.

Cities that are attempting to grow should consider their historical legacy. Building on images of the past, they can leapfrog development and establish a brand identity. Modernization was often thought of as a practical developmental tool. Building on the history of a region, modernization can take unique characteristics and differentiated developmental patterns.

Few, if any, studies examined the historical antecedents of a remaking and a re‐branding of a city. Destination marketing is an emerging area of research. Xi'an was a great, pivotal city in the past. This paper explores how one region built on the greatness of the past can re‐emerge in modern society.

The region of Guelma, located in the northeast of Algeria, is characterised by its important natural and cultural heritage. This heritage is ignored and abandoned, which leads to its degradation and even its disappearance. Thus, it is imperative to seek to know and understand the reasons for this situation. This study aims to reveal the constraints of heritage promotion and its staging through its insertion in the development process.

A hypothetical–deductive approach based on a qualitative method using surveys was carried out on the knowledge of the heritage of Guelma by the actors concerned. The laws and classification procedures were interpreted to identify the heritage's stakes to ensure sustainable local development through tourism.

The results show the lack of recognition of the natural and cultural heritage by the region's population, the cumbersome, long and complex classification procedure. The weakness of the offer in terms of tourist infrastructures constitutes a handicap to the valorisation of the heritage and prevents the enhancement and development of tourism. Systematically, heritage does not contribute to the local and territorial development of the Guelma region.

The article underlines the importance of raising awareness among the various heritage stakeholders and actors, and first, the population, of the value of their natural and cultural heritage to make it profitable and a driving force for local and territorial development.