CAIRO — Steeped in history, Egypt is one of the great cradles of civilization and an archeologist’s dream.It is not, however, a swinging place to party, as a senior civil servant and his schoolteacher wife discovered when they were arrested for contributing to the decline of morals in the country.

According to media reports, the couple stands accused of hosting swinger parties at their home with the participation of other couples they met on the internet. Police are looking for the other couples.

Extra-marital sex is illegal in Egypt, where Islamic law is specified by the constitution.

The couple, identified only as Magdy and Samira, established a website promoting “wife swapping” and posted ads at popular Arabic porn sites. According to police, the couple then interviewed 44 respondents before inviting anyone to party with them.

In their defense, Magdy and Samira turned down 40 unmarried couples. According to reports, the unmarried couples were seen as confidentiality risks.

In the same sting operation, which reportedly arose after police intercepted emails exchanged between several of the couples, police arrested a Giza lawyer who also was attempting to establish wife-swapping arrangements.

The human-rights group Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights was outraged by the whole affair.

“The case raises serious concerns about due process and the privacy rights of those arrested, especially in light of press reports about police interception of defendants’ electronic correspondence,” spokesman Hossam Bahgat told the AFP news agency. “We’re also of course worried that police seem to be still going after many people based on the intercepted emails of the two main defendants.”