CAIRO — Egyptian Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli met July 22 with Cairo Gov. Khaled Abdel-Aal, Culture Minister Inas Abdel Dayem and the head of the General Organization for Physical Planning, Alaa Abdel Fattah, to discuss a presidential directive to develop the Ataba market, the largest market in the Egyptian capital, located in Mosky neighborhood. The directive called for the evacuation of merchants and the restoration of the market following a massive fire June 27. 

The historical Ataba market, built in 1892, has a strategic location in the heart of the Egyptian capital, just a few kilometers from Tahrir Square. It stretches over ​​5,200 square meters (1.3 acres), and includes 460 shops; there are also thousands of street traders in adjacent Ataba Square.

Highly popular among traders from all over Egypt as well as poor and middle-class shoppers, it is recognized as one of the largest wholesale markets in Cairo of various goods such as vegetables, clothing, electronics, furniture, toys and more.

A joint committee from the governorate and the Endowment Authority counted 180 shops — more than one-third of the market — destroyed by the fire. The shopkeepers’ losses were estimated at $2 million, according to the Mosky police department. Shop owners, however, told Al-Monitor that losses far exceeded this amount.