It gives me great pleasure to share a brief account of Horema.
Libya
Where the Foundation Was Built
Libya
Where the Foundation Was Built
In 1974, Engineering Consultants Group (ECG) undertook major field and consultancy work in Libya alongside American and European engineering firms.
The work spanned groundwater exploration, geology, surveying, water infrastructure and geotechnical investigation — including wells reaching 800 metres and pumping tests lasting months.
For us, this was where the foundation was built: international engineering standards, learned and applied on the ground.
Cairo
Experience Grows
Cairo
Experience Grows
That experience continued with the Greater Cairo Waterworks Master Plan, bringing further exposure to major investigations and international engineering practice.
Each project added knowledge. Each international collaboration raised the standard.
Alexandria
Horema Takes Shape
Alexandria
Horema Takes Shape
In 1980, Horema was established to support the major USAID-backed Alexandria wastewater programme, providing ground investigation, drilling and laboratory testing, followed by quality assurance during construction of treatment plants, pipelines and tunnels.
An American specialist from CH2M Hill, Lloyd Macovitch, worked full-time alongside us for approximately six years.
Horema’s technical foundation was also shaped by distinguished academics, including Dr. Kamal Khalifa, and Dr. Ahmed Khalil Gamal El-Din — founder of the soil laboratory at the Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University, and a student of Karl Terzaghi, the founder of geotechnical engineering. He stayed with us for some twenty years — may God have mercy on him — and we learned a great deal at his generous hands. After him, the esteemed scholar Dr. Adel Barakat joined us, then Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University.
We learned a great deal from all of them, and from the international firms that worked with ECG — of every nationality: Japanese, Italian, Korean, Swiss, English, German, Chinese, and many others — over more than forty years.
Everything was learned in ECG — the science, and the conduct. We had our example there in all things: Sami Bek, Ashraf Bek Allouba, and Eng. Fouad El-Taher.
In time, Horema became an entity standing on its own; its ownership structure changed, while the principles it was founded upon remained steadfast. And ECG remains a client to this day.
Today
Knowledge Passed Forward
This is how Horema’s expertise was formed: project by project, test by test, and generation by generation.
We always held a deep respect for knowledge, and for the people who carry it. We sought it wherever it was — in books, references and libraries, with professors and experts, and in every project we worked. We learned from those who came before us, and from everyone who had knowledge or experience to add.
And what we learned, we never kept to ourselves: we built it into a technical library, trained our engineers on it, and passed it to those who came after us.
Over the years, Ahmed Elkhawalka carried the commercial and operational responsibility, helping build and sustain Horema as an enduring business.
We worked and persevered, and God’s grace was the greatest of all. May God bless this place, its people, and the knowledge passed from one generation to the next.