The scope of the paper is the lost tangible heritage and the daydreamers who are bound to them. It explores memories of lost buildings, as well as their ability to document and relive that building one more time. The paper focuses on Wikāliẗ ạl-'Anbariyin for several reasons: its location, historical background, architectural significance, and most importantly, for its recent demolition that had an echo on social media and public debates. Through using narrative writing, the paper is exploring the memories of Wikāliẗ ạl-'Anbariyin's vendors and shop owners, who have experienced it. It explores the influence of the demolition on the everyday life of its dwellers and the relationship between memories and spaces produced post the demolition. This research follows a qualitative methodology, in which it depends on on-site observations and semi-structured interviews. Then through thematic analysis, the data is analyzed.

The paper consists of five sections. The first section illustrates the concepts of memories, placelessness, and the role of memories in reliving lost tangible heritage. The second section is an overview of Wikāliẗ ạl-’Anbariyin, its historical background, and architectural significance. The third section, entitled "Research methods," focuses on the qualitative methodology. The fourth section, "Daydreamers of ạl-'Anbariyin," is about the analyzed data from the memories of the interviewees and site observation. It includes three subsections: topophilia, time, and event, as well as the right to be haunted by memories. "Conclusion" is the fifth and last section. It discusses the outcomes.

According to UNESCO, tangible heritage is the material significant elements, such as monuments, of the built environment (Hassan, 2014). However, heritage is not just a physical artifact; it is a cultural process, which people associate with everyday life (Harvey, 2001). They are important, not only because of their architecture and past events but also because of their connectivity with ordinary people's lives (Lowenthal, 1979). This connectivity and association help in the formation of a bond between buildings and their people, which is called place attachment (Lewicka, 2008). This attachment encourages people to begin making memories and feel the intimacy about that building. Memories are connected to our senses. With the help of these senses, the mind starts creating stories that could easily illustrate its experiences, and enable them to persist in life (Archibald, 1948). The demolition of the building announces the end of the building's life (Thomsen et al., 2011). Under this circumstance, in which the building is lost, placelessness, as Relph has described it, occurs (Relph, 1976). It is when people lose their sense of place (Sumaiyah, 2013). Despite the lost buildings, memories have their role in reviving them and the ability of these memories and their documentation to sustain those lost buildings (Kenneth, 1990).

The location of Wikāliẗ ạl-’Anbariyin is in a ạl-Mu’iz Street, near ạl-Ạzhar Street, ạl-jmmạliyha district, Cairo (Figure 1 and Figure 2). It has its historical background and architectural style (Figure 3).

The building used to be ạl-M’aūnah prison in the Fatimid period (Al-Malty, n.d.). Sultan Qalāwun, during the Mammluk period, demolished the prison and constructed "qaysạriyaẗ ạlʿanbr": a market for amber (Al-Maqrizi, 1441). Subsequently, according to the National Archives (Archives, 1864), Wikāliẗ ạl-’Anbariyin had passed by two phases. In the first phase, before 1810, Farahat al-Hinawy owned and reconstructed it to include a Wikālah (market), a small Khan (motel), and Hawanit (shops). Then in 1855, a new owner Y’aqūb Byk Ṣabry, one of the assistants of Muhammad ’Aly Bạsẖạ (Mubarak, 1889), combined the previous functions to make a big Wikālah (market), in which it includes several shops, for selling textiles and perfumes, and rooms for accommodation above them. It was a four-story building, with a courtyard in its middle and attached to two buildings. To access the building, people used the main entrances that overlooked ạl-Mu’iz Street, as well as, from the stairs of the attached buildings. A shop owner said that Wikāliẗ ạl-’Anbariyin used to be the keystone, in which it connected two existing buildings, through being in the middle. Therefore, despite moving from one building to another through ạl-Mu’iz Street, workers, and visitors, through the connected passway that surrounded the courtyard, could move easily away from noise and crowdedness of the street. Although in 2005, fire affected the building, its interior (Figure 4), and its façade (Figure 5), shops continued to function, as well as storage areas (Figure 6).

The building was demolished in February 2019 (EL-AREF, 2019) (Figure 7). Currently, a three meters high corrugated sheet fence surrounds the ruins of the building, cutting the threads of attachment to the space, in which the building used to exist (Figure 8).

This paper uses site-based observations and semi-structured interviews with users of the site, to gather memories about Wikāliẗ ạl-’Anbariyin. Site visits and interviews took place on several random days in April and May 2019. The randomly conducted interviews ranged between ten minutes to thirty minutes, focusing on the memories and daydreams of people who once experienced, worked or visited Wikāliẗ ạl-’Anbariyin. The number of interviewees was nine from the workers and shop owners in the building and its surroundings (Figure 9). Despite the inability of four interviewees to share their memories, because they were new vendors and had not experienced the building well, the other interviewees were able to share theirs. At first, the interviewees seemed anxious and did not want to say anything about Wikāliẗ ạl-’Anbariyin. Despite earlier anxiety, they started sharing their stories. Some of the interviewees felt the need to show their photos of Wikāliẗ ạl-’Anbariyin, although they did not have them. Another one took a paper and a pen to draw a plan of Wikāliẗ ạl-’Anbariyin, to illustrate how it used to look like, as well as, the names of their owners. Another one recommended me to watch a video about the building on YouTube. The last one, to explain the courtyard of Wikāliẗ ạl-’Anbariyin, used the furniture in his shop to form the shape of the courtyard. Later, the interviews were thematically analysed.

Inspired by Gaston Bachelard and Michel De Certeau, this section is about the interviewees' memories of the building. It includes three sub-sections. "Topophilia" is the first sub-section, which is concerned with the narratives and memories of the interviewees regarding the tangible and intangible essence of the building. "Time and event" is the second sub-section. It is about events that interviewees still remember. The last sub-section, "the right to be haunted by memories", is about memories and their relationship to the produced space after the building's demolition.

The objective of the paper is to explore people's memories of a demolished building and their ability to document and conserve it. Moreover, it explores the role of these memories in the produced space after the building's demolition. I have chosen Wikāliẗ ạl-’Anbariyin, for its architectural authenticity, historical significance, as well as its role in ordinary people's everyday life. From the thematic analysis of the semi-structured interviews, I deduce several points. Firstly, people, who self-experience the building, memorize it, and become attached to it. This appears in the interviewees' detailed narratives, as well as their drawings. Secondly, the building's architectural design influences people's memories, experiences, and dreams. This point is expressed in the influence of the crypt, as well as the courtyard, on the interviewees. Finally, even after the building was lost, people can recall the events that they witnessed in that building. This takes place in the interviewees' memories of the building's significant events. Furthermore, it shows the ability of memories to express and document a demolished building.

After the Wikāliẗ ạl-'Anbariyin's demolition, however, the existence of the fence, that represents the power, social spaces have been produced by vendors, in which some of them used to work. This is because, from the interviews, they have the desire, sense of belonging, as well as the feeling of having the right to shape their own city. The absence of the building impacts the workers' lives. It changed from an enclosure, centralised and private gathering space, to a public street space aligned with the existing fence. Despite this, vendors can organize their produced space and define their boundaries. Correspondingly, from the interviews and site observation, memories have their influence on the produced space. This could be seen, through the signs that the vendors use, in addition to vendors' spatial experience and way of communication.

After thanking Allah, the prophet, my family, I would like to thank Dr. Ahmed El Antably, for his support, in addition to the interviewees for their collaboration. Furthermore, I would like to dedicate this paper to the daydreamers, who memorize and document their narratives about their built environment.