Stairs to nowhere: Egypt post office's design blunder mocked online

But government says steps will give access to an ATM that will be installed soon

The staircase in Sharqia that leads to nowhere

A staircase leading to nowhere at a new post office in Egypt has been mocked on social media after photos emerged on Monday showing the stairs ending at a blank wall.

The building in the village of Al Akhaywah in the Sharqia province opened this month and took off as a talking point on Monday.

Many social media users criticised the municipal government for bad planning.

Others compared the staircase with the economic state of the country itself.

Facebook user Ahmed Salman said: “This staircase is probably for anyone who is discontent with life in Egypt right now. They will tell him to go up the stairs and bang his head against the blank wall.”

But Egypt Post, the country’s national postal service, and the State Information Service said the stairs were part of an earlier phase of blueprints for the building.

They were intended to lead up to an ATM, which had not yet been fitted into the space.

The SIS promised the ATM would be fitted soon and said it was always the plan to build the stairs first.

“It is common practice when finishing up these buildings that stairs are built first before the ATM,” Egypt Post said.

“We decided to build a solid wall until the time was right to build the space that the ATM fits into.”

However, post office workers told local media outlets that the ATM was removed from the blueprints during an earlier stage of construction and that there had been no plans to reinstall it until Monday, when it became a nationwide controversy.

They said the blunder was caused by two separate teams involved in the construction not co-ordinating their plans.

Pictures of the stairs have been shared hundreds of times by Egyptians on social media.

Another Facebook user, Abdo Taher, mockingly suggested the wall hid a magic door only for use by select government employees and military officers who knew the password.

Some users defended the municipality, while others said the construction company could not be blamed.

Ahmed Kamel said: “Aside from all jokes, this is really ridiculous. How could the municipal government sign off on this from the construction company? Whoever designed this is not to blame.”

Ali Saber praised the “long-sighted” move by the municipality because it left open the option for an ATM in the future.