“Forgetfulness is the plague of our alley,” Egypt’s Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz famously said in his 1959 novel, “Children of Gebelawi.” The “alley” was Egypt itself.

Nevertheless, Egypt has never forgotten its best-known writer, who died in 2006 — nor the plans to open a museum about him. It took more than 13 years, with one postponement after another and endless disputes with the writer’s family on what would be featured there. Finally, the museum was opened on July 14, with the ministers of culture and antiquities as well as members of the Egyptian intelligentsia in attendance. But both opening and the museum itself were harshly criticized, leading some writers to comment that perhaps the plague of Egypt was not forgetfulness, but sloppiness.

The museum is housed in the three-story Abu El-Dahab complex in Cairo’s Al-Azhar neighborhood. The Mamluk-era building is on the busy Imam Muhammad Abdo Street but its gate there is closed, so visitors have to go through a narrow side street that is known for housing such stinky businesses as butchers and bird traders. The lack of signage for the side entry makes finding the museum something of a treasure hunt and prevents any chance visitors from noticing the museum dedicated to Egypt's only Nobel laureate.

But once inside the building, visitors are welcomed by a large collection of the life and works of Mahfouz. The first floor contains several seminar halls an audiovisual library of Mahfouz' works and a public library for his works as well as those of other authors and many critical treatises and studies about Mahfouz' work and life.