[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
DAM-L Egypt's Aswan Dam Threatens Archaelogical Sites (fwd)
----- Forwarded message from Ryan Hoover -----
Return-path: <owner-irn-safrica@netvista.net>
Received: from DaVinci.NetVista.net (mjdomo@mail.netvista.net [206.170.46.10])
by lox.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca (8.8.7/8.8.8) with ESMTP id NAA23005
for <dianne@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca>; Thu, 12 Jul 2001 13:30:32 -0400 (EDT)
Received: [(from mjdomo@localhost)
by DaVinci.NetVista.net (8.10.0/8.8.8) id f6CHRNt08278
for irn-safrica-list; Thu, 12 Jul 2001 10:27:23 -0700 (PDT)
(envelope-from owner-irn-safrica@netvista.net)]
Received: [from Okavango.irn.org ([205.178.127.217])
by DaVinci.NetVista.net (8.10.0/8.8.8) with ESMTP id f6CHRGp08272
for <irn-safrica@netvista.net>; Thu, 12 Jul 2001 10:27:16 -0700 (PDT)
(envelope-from ryan@irn.org)]
Message-ID: <4.3.1.20010712103946.00aca1a0@pop3.netvista.net>
X-Sender: ryan@pop3.netvista.net
X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 4.3
Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 10:40:52 -0700
To: irn-safrica@netvista.net
From: Ryan Hoover <ryan@irn.org>
Subject: Egypt's Aswan Dam Threatens Archaelogical Sites
Sender: owner-irn-safrica@netvista.net
Precedence: bulk
Egypt's Karnak Threatened by Water
Thursday July 12, 2001 5:30 pm
LUXOR, Egypt (AP) - Nothing seems out of the ordinary as tourists walk
lazily around the labyrinthian, desert-dry complex of ancient Egyptian
columns, statues and festival halls.
But underneath the rubble and dry sand at Karnak lurks a threat to the
site, which ranks with the pyramids as among the most impressive of Egypt's
antiquity treasures.
Ground water, say experts, has risen alarmingly close to the foundations of
Karnak. It could eventually result in the crumbling or sinking of the
temple complex built over 2,500 years, ending around the start of Roman
rule in Egypt in 30 B.C.
The ground water - no one can be absolutely certain of its source - now
lies less than two yards below the stone structures. In contrast, when the
Nile inundated Karnak during the river's annual flood some 50 years ago,
the water level stood eight yards below the foundations after the river's
water receded.
``This is Karnak, it's no joke,'' said Sabry Khater, director of
antiquities at Luxor.
Karnak's majestic columns on the east bank of the Nile at Luxor are known
around the world. The complex provided stunning scenery for the 1978
British movie ``Death on The Nile'' and is visited by an estimated 2
million people every year.
Khater said local media reports suggesting it was only a matter of time
before Karnak begins to crumble are grossly exaggerated. But he and other
experts noted the danger was serious enough to prompt Prime Minister Atef
Obeid to visit Luxor in June and for the issue to be brought up before
parliament.
Gaballah Ali Gaballah, director of Egypt's Supreme Antiquities Council,
flew to Paris last month to secure the cooperation of UNESCO, the U.N.
agency mandated to protect world heritage, in projects designed to reduce
the water level beneath Karnak.
``It is a serious problem. The question is how long do we have to correct
it and how do we correct it?'' said Egyptologist Kent Weeks of the American
University in Cairo. ``The ancient Egyptians built massive structures, some
with foundations and some without and mostly close to the banks of the Nile.''
Decades of irrigation for thousands of acres of farmland around Karnak are
among the suspected causes of the ground water problem. Years of leakage
from drinking water and sewer pipes serving growing urban communities
around the complex also are suspected.
``We are not going to wait until the columns begin to fall down,'' Khater
said.
A $500,000 study by Stockholm-based Swedco on the likely sources of the
water and the best way to reduce it is to be completed by October,
according to Khater.
In the meantime, projects that may help are under way. They include a $40
million sewage treatment plant for Luxor and more efficient irrigation for
the farmland surrounding Karnak. Most of the cost will be met by the U.S.
Agency for International Development.
Dubbed by archaeologists as the world's largest open air museum some 300
miles south of Cairo, Luxor has a population of 100,000. Only 12 percent of
the town is known to have proper sewage systems.
Karnak is surrounded on three sides by clusters of mudbrick houses, some of
which stand right against its outer walls.
Some archaeologists believe Karnak can only be saved by reducing ground
water across Egypt.
``There must be a master plan for the entire country,'' said Daniel Polz of
Cairo's German Archaeological Institute and a 20-year veteran of field work
in Egypt.
``My impression is that it's going to be a major endeavor to do something
about the ground water at Karnak. It is a regional, rather than a local,
problem,'' he said.
Many antiquity sites along the Nile valley, he added, were being undermined
by ground water and sewage from urban development.
Polz and Weeks, the American Egyptologist, said many of the 23 ancient
temples across the river from Karnak on the west bank of the Nile are
suffering from ground water problems too.
They also contend the construction of Egypt's Aswan dam upstream from
Luxor, which allowed farmers to grow crops all year round by stopping the
river's flooding, meant ground water throughout the Nile valley in Egypt
has become stable at a high level.
Prior to the dam, completed in 1971, the river's valley was inundated at
the peak of the annual August-October flood, but the water later receded
and, in the process, washed the soil of salt - the worst enemy of the
limestone used by ancient Egyptians to build their monuments.
``Before the dam, the water level rose for about three months but was low
for the rest of the year. When it receded, it cleansed the soil and took
away the salt. The level of ground water is high all year round now,'' said
Weeks.
Ryan Hoover
Africa Campaigns
1847 Berkeley Way
Berkeley, CA 94703
USA
Phone: (510) 848-1155 Fax: (510) 848-1008
www.irn.org
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to majordomo@netvista.net
with no subject and the following text in the body of the message
"unsubscribe irn-safrica".
----- End of forwarded message from Ryan Hoover -----