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Ancient Egypt Rises Again as Water Recedes
FrontLines - December-January 2009-10
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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.
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The walls of Luxor’s Medinet Habu, the mortuary temple of King Ramses III, were once painted by
ancient Egyptians in colors, but have over time eroded, faded, or been covered by soot and sand.
Experts carefully clean of the sediments to reveal the colors beneath. But unexposed, shaded areas
such as this one retain their original, ancient colorings.
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The Egyptian Ministry of Culture’s Supreme Council of Antiquities is trained through USAID funds in preservation techniques for sites like this one at Medinet Habu, the mortuary temple of King Rameses III, in Luxor. The sites in this once ancient Greek city of Thebes have begun to crumble under the impact of salt crystals in rising groundwater from the lush city’s Nile River.
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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.
★
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by the Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs
U.S. Agency for International Development
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