£34,000 TO REBUILD AN OLD MOSQUE IN EGYPT

A MOSQUE in Egypt has been re-built using British foreign aid, as millions of pounds are lavished on arts and culture projects abroad. Overseas development money dished out by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport more than doubled to £8.9million in 2018, up from £4.2million the previous year.

More than £7.9million of the cash, intended to help the world’s poorest, was used on protecting heritage sites and traditions in the Middle East and Africa.

More than £830,000 was spent in Turkey in 2018, the most recent year for which there are figures, even though it is a member G20 club of the world’s richest economies.

Projects funded with British taxpayers’ money there included a £50,467 scheme to document rock carvings in the country that involved training ‘local heritage professionals’ to take 3D images of them.

In Egypt, £34,178 went on the restoration of a traditional rock-salt mosque in the old fortified city of Shali. Aid money helped provide training local people, and the Mosque of Moqbil is now in use by the local community.

A £64,885 grant was given to help restore the facades of old buildings in Jerusalem.

Some £23,712 went on a scheme to protect minority languages in Afghanistan, with a further £25,000 spent on restoring paintings that were damaged by the Taliban.

In Iraq, £32,873 was spent on revitalising traditional boatmaking on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

A project in Sudan to preserve its traditional food culture received £53,310.

A DCMS spokesman said: ‘In recent years we have seen some of the world’s great cultural treasures destroyed by conflict or natural disasters, and this funding will help communities around the world preserve art, culture and heritage of global significance.’