The Governorate of Alexandria possesses many historical buildings and districts, in addition to art works and streets that need protection. In December 1999, Dr. Mohamed Awad founded the Alexandria Preservation Trust (APT), an organization dedicated to promoting awareness and preservation of Alexandria's cultural heritage, with special emphasis on the built environment. Within the framework of the APT, Dr. Awad compiled a list of buildings to be protected from demolition. However, as this list was not approved by the Egyptian Prime Minister, Alexandria lost many of its significant historical buildings. Later, in accordance with law 144 of 2006 regarding heritage preservation and the demolition of buildings, the governor of Alexandria requested that the Bibliotheca Alexandria prepare the Alexandria Heritage Catalogue to include all historical buildings, streets, districts and art works that require protection.

The governor established two committees to identify the historical buildings throughout Alexandria Governorate. Alex Med was responsible for organizing the work done by these two committees, and for creating the digital maps and databases of the buildings, streets, districts and art works, in the form of GIS. The resulting catalogue published by Alex Med was given to the governor to be approved by the Egyptian Prime Minister. On 31 January 2008, according to declaration 278 of 2008, the approval for the Alexandria Heritage Catalogue, containing updated data on buildings and owners, was published in the official Egyptian press, El Waqaa El Masreya issue number 5.