Saving Egypts Monuments

[Qoais]

At the 3,300-year-old Karnak Temple, dedicated to the ancient Egyptian god Amun, USAID-funded archeologists from the American Research Center in Egypt and Chicago House inspect and preserve a recently-discovered room. The room has yet to be seen by tourists and retains much of its original colors and ancient etchings.

LUXOR, Egypt—The matching Indiana Jones fedoras on two leading archeologists as they entered the ancient Temple Rameses III of Medinet Habu were necessary shields for working in the 104-degree Egyptian desert in October.

Egyptian excavators emerged from among ancient pillars to greet Egyptologists Raymond Johnson, director of the Epigraphic Survey based at Chicago House in Luxor, and Gerry Scott, director of the American Research Center in Egypt, who are working to save their national history.

Medinet Habu lies miles away from the more famous Luxor and Karnak Temples but, unlike these two World Heritage Sites on the Nile’s East Bank where a USAID-funded dewatering project has slowed the rate of deterioration, the West Bank temple continues to decay due to groundwater intrusion. Building structures become porous and cracked by rising groundwater levels. The wall surfaces where hieroglyphics and drawings are etched have begun falling away.

“The surface is sloughed off the stone, like skin,” Johnson said.

Though some buildings have stood since 2000 B.C., neighboring sugarcane irrigation has caused water levels to rise and bring salt into the base of the ancient buildings, Johnson said. When the water recedes, salt crystals swell and shatter the fragile stone. Field scientists also fear that global climate change has begun to speed the ruin of these ancient structures.

“If the damage were allowed to continue, temples like Karnak and Luxor would start to collapse. You’d see structural failure,” Johnson said. “There are places where the stone is literally turning to sand before your eyes… It’s so wet and saturated.”

USAID has spent $100 million in 30 years to preserve the ancient monuments, USAID’s Egypt Director Hilda Arellano said. USAID has worked on more than 70 antiquities conservation projects at 30 historical sites.

“It’s the challenging projects that are always the most important and the most rewarding,” she said.

On Oct. 20, 2009, USAID signed a water-lowering protocol with the Egyptian Ministry of Culture’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, the National Organization for Potable Water and Sanitary Drainage (NOPWASD), and the Supreme Council of Luxor City.

Luxor’s Governor Samir Farag, NOPWASD Chairman Engineer Hassan Khaled Fadl, and Director of Upper Egypt Antiquities Mansour Boraik attended the signing with USAID’s Arellano.

“The project we’re inaugurating today is really the last phase of 30 years of water construction projects in Egypt,” Arellano said. It is the third in a successful series of combined groundwaterlowering and monument conservation projects in Egypt.

The drainage project will decrease groundwater levels and protect Medinet Habu, Amenhotep III, the Ramesseum, Seti, and 20 small temples. The sites protected by USAID cover a range of historical periods: Neolithic, Pharaonic, Greco-Roman, early and medieval Christian, medieval Islamic, and Ottoman.

“Time is an element, but the growth in population is expediting the decay,” said Sylvia Atalla, USAID’s antiquities and environment program manager.

“We’re barely keeping our heads above water,” Johnson said. “These complexes represent the beginnings of world civilization… Thanks to USAID support, we’ve been able to get grants to address changing conditions.”

FrontLines writer Analeed Marcus wrote this series of articles following a trip to Egypt in October. All photos by Analeed Marcus. ★

http://www.usaid.gov/press/frontlines/fl_decjan10/p09_luxor100122.html

Edited February 18, 2010 by Qoais