The notion of “Cultural heritage” is quite modern compared to other humanistic fields developed in the last century. Conservation as a science has emerged and took shape during international conventions and treaties in many places in Europe and developed various frameworks to recognize the heritage and its value but based on “Eurocentric bias” criteria. The fact of sharing universal values and common practices during the age of globalization had a significant impact on conservation actions in contexts utterly different from western societies and don’t share the same historical or cultural dimensions. Therefore, this study traces the history of the evolution of conservation in the west from two perspectives; the historical one and the developing methodologies, and the philosophies behind the main theories in conservation. Cultural heritage is a reflection of the identity of the society and its past; thus, this study outlines the development of conservation practices in Egypt within the international approaches in a chronological order to investigate the social response and the impact of the political and cultural influence of the cultural consciousness of the society and the conservation actions in the Egyptian context. Furthermore, to investigate the contribution of international charters in developing national policies in Egypt.

The most controversial aspect in heritage conservation; is determining the values of monuments. Each value has attributes that can be shaped and consequently impact the society’s mindset and approach towards their heritage. The whole process starts with historians and conservators who can contextualize the monument and set up their conservation plans. However, this process doesn’t guarantee the recognition of real heritage values by the societies. Therefore, the after-plan phase is crucial in evaluating the conservation project’s effectiveness in various aspects. This paper questions the discipline of heritage recognition and the conservation project’s evaluation in Egypt where many conservation actions neglect their true values and alter the originality of monuments. Moreover, investigates the role of the Conservation project’s “Monitoring” as a new actor in re-establishing values to be pursued by the society through site visits to successful conservation projects in Cairo and analytical surveys regarding their performance and the social responses.