The house of English Architect Somers Clarke in an Egyptian village in the southern Aswan Governorate has joined a list of Islamic and Coptic monuments upon the request of Egypt’s Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anani.
The decision to list the house, 112 years after Clarke built it in al-Nusrab village, was published in the Official Gazette on Wednesday.
Built in 1906 on a rocky hill overlooking the Nile River, Clarke’s house is an architectural masterpiece. It was largely constructed from mud-brick and local limestone.
It is surrounded by plantations and the houses of village residents to the east. On its west side lies the Nile.
Antiquities sources said Clarke’s house has two main entrances- one in the north, which is reached through a rocky staircase, and another in the south, used by guards and maids.
Clarke became famous in Britain for construction work and restoration of churches. He was Surveyor of the Fabric of St. Paul's Cathedral.
He has worked for the Sir Gilbert Scott institution and has carried out carvings and restorations of several churches in Egypt.
After his death in 1926, Clarke was buried near his house in al-Nusrab.
