Quite unexpectedly, Julius Franz Pasha, the head of the Technical Office of the Waqf Ministry (≈Ministry of Religious Affairs) offered Herz a job in Cairo.

As he had to stay in a neutral country in order to receive his pension from Egypt, he moved on to Zürich after Italy declared war on her ally, the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, on 23 May 1915.

However, on account of his qualification, experience, the devotion to his job, his capacity for work and last but not least his position, Herz played a decisive role in the Comité, which soon extended the sphere of its activities to monuments of Coptic architecture too.

Max Herz filled this post for a quarter of a century (1890–1914), and in this capacity he played an outstanding role in the preservation of monuments of Arab-Islamic and Coptic architecture.

At a very early stage the Comité decided that its foremost task was to secure the survival of the greatest possible number of monuments, which children of a happier and richer age would subject to complete restoration.

[6] In Herz's practice "stylistic purity" meant that in the case of periods whose architecture was well known owing to the existence of numerous monuments, he regarded as permissible the analogical reconstruction of structures whose original shape was unknown.

[12] Source:[13] Herz carried out important works of restoration on the Azhar mosque (359-361/970-972)[21] and we are indebted to him for the survival of Fort Qayitbay (881/1477), which the Sultan erected on the remains of the Pharos in Alexandria.

[24] In addition to descriptions of the objects, they contain a concise account of the history of Arab-Islamic art according to the fields represented in the museum's collections and thus they still possess eminent scholarly value on a general level.

[25] There can be no doubt that it was owing to his high competence, unflagging zeal and self-sacrificing efforts exerted in the course of long decades that the Coptic Museum evolved into the flourishing scholarly institution of world renown that we know today.

In his memoirs written in the 1930s he pays great tribute to the achievements and boundless merits of Marcus Simayka Pasha in the unsurpassed development of the museum; nevertheless he explicitly names Herz as its founder.

[34] In the same quarter stood a palace which its new owner, the tobacco manufacturer Nestor Gianaclis, decided to have remodelled in the neo-Mamluk style, entrusting the task to Max Herz in 1898.

Its construction began around 1870 by the order of Khushyar hanim, the pious mother of Khedive Ismail, according to plans prepared by the Egyptian architect Husayn Fahmi.

A quarter of a century later, in 1906, Khedive Abbas II Hilmi entrusted Max Herz with the completion of the gigantic edifice opposite the grandiose mosque of Sultan Hasan (757-764/1356-1362).

The completion of the superb mosque, which also served as the burial place of members of the Khedivial family, represented a great personal and professional success for Max Herz.

Herz built the head office of the former Crédit Foncier Égyptien on the corner of today's Abd al-Khaliq Tharwat and Muhammad Bey Farid Streets in downtown Cairo in the Beaux-Arts style following the designs of Carlo Prampolini.

In cooperation with Anton Battigelli, in 1898 Herz carried out extension work on the building of the Austro-Hungarian "Rudolf" Hospital (Ospedale Rodolfo in contemporary parlance) in the Abbasiyya quarter (9a Sharia al-Masud off Midan Abduh Basha).

The building, of modest quality, has been remodelled several times since; in 1997 it was the property of the Faggala Evangelical Church and housed an outpatients' clinic, a vocational training centre, a Christian club and offices.

[37] The "Cairo Street" at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago was designed by Max Herz and he also supervised the final stage of its erection on the spot.

It was not the copy of any street actually in existence in Cairo but an architectural complex made of temporary materials modelled on typical Cairene buildings or parts of them to evoke the atmosphere of the Middle-Eastern metropolis.

In order to enhance the authenticity of the Street, a great number of typical inhabitants of Cairo as well as animals (camels, donkeys and snakes) were also brought to Chicago to populate the complex.

[38] Max Herz was an outstanding historian of architecture but his heavy workload at the Comité did not allow him to develop his capacities in this field to the level of his abilities and desires.

At the same time, all his publications are worthy of our attention, because they were written by a highly gifted and well educated specialist who lived among the monuments of Cairo over the course of 35 years, in everyday contact and continuous interaction with them.

In the following we list his most important publications accompanied by annotations:[39] Max Herz had close connections with Hungary throughout his life; he visited his native country several times.

Herz left Hungary for good at the age of 21 – of course he was not aware of this at the time –, so one might not have been surprised if the memory of his native country had faded in his mind over the long decades he spent away from home.

Looking death straight in the face with noble calmness of mind, he remained to his last breath a caring husband, a tender father to his daughters, and a true son – consumed by sorrow and grief – of his dearly beloved Hungarian fatherland.

[44] He cultivated his ties to Temesvár, where he spent his early youth and where his elder sister, Katalin lived, who had affectionately cared for him in his childhood after the untimely loss of their mother.