Egypt is not known for high-risk earthquakes. When there is an earthquake, it often comes in the form of a shaky bed, with no sense of danger whatsoever. But every once in a while, calamity strikes, as it struck Cairo nearly thirty years ago on 12 October 1992. On that day, an earthquake took the lives of 545 Egyptians, injuring 6,512, and displacing 50,000 Egyptians in the process. Modern-day Egypt had never seen so much seismic damage prior to that moment, forever reminding Egyptians that earthquakes can be more than a mere bed shake. The earthquake, which began at 3:09 PM Cairo time, possessed a seemingly-normal magnitude of 5.8. The country often experiences higher magnitudes with far less damage. However, when the earthquake occurred 25 kilometers southwest of Cairo, Dahshur necropolis being the epicenter, the damage was disastrous, it was felt throughout all of Cairo, as well as Alexandria, Port Said, and as far south as Asyut. The greatest damage was recorded in Bulaq, an area in Old Cairo, where centuries-long archaic structures suffered from the seismic impact. A report by the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) reported 350…
