CAIRO, Egypt — Since the arrival of the Arab conquerors in Egypt in the 7th century, the plain at the foot of the Mukattam hills, southeast of present-day Cairo, has served as an important burial site for the country. There lie prominent figures such as Amr ibn al-As, the Arab Muslim commander who led the conquest of Egypt and served as its governor for years.

From that initial site, subsequent rulers of Egypt added new areas that expanded the Cairo necropolis to the north and south. The monumental cemetery, also known as the City of the Dead, currently comprises two main areas — the southern and northern cemeteries — which together extend over 12 kilometers (7½ miles) and cover an area of about 1,000 hectares (2,471 acres). Today, the site is part of Historic Cairo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site registered since 1979.

“It has historical significance and architectural and symbolic value,” said Galila El Kadi, architect and head of research at the Research Institute for Sustainable Development in Paris, and author of "Architecture for the Dead." She told Al-Monitor, “The Mamluk sultans, rulers of Egypt and figures of the political, artistic and economic life [of the country] are also buried there, as well as a large number of Egyptians.”

Now an important part of this medieval necropolis is in danger of being demolished because of an ambitious government road network project, conservators warn. The project, of which few details are public, plans to cross, encircle and penetrate the cemeteries. And critics fear that it will deform its urban tissue, destroy its homogeneity and bulldoze hundreds of valuable treasures of the funeral Muslim architecture, as well as challenge its position as a major feature of Cairo’s urban landscape. The plan comes less than two years after parts of the cemetery were already affected by other similar road projects.