Word: luxor
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Throughout Egypt, the story is much the same. The walls of the Temple of Luxor, some 400 miles upriver from Cairo, are cracking so badly that President Hosni Mubarak, visiting the site in February, called for a thorough restoration. Nearly a fifth of the wall paintings at the tomb of Nefertari, across the Nile from Luxor in the Valley of the Queens, have been destroyed by salt deposits. In fact, says Zahi Hawass, who supervises the Giza Plateau for the Egyptian Antiquities Organization, "all the monuments are endangered. If we don't do something soon, in 100 years the paintings...
...Temple of Luxor. At this 33-century-old complex, it was discovered two years ago that pillars in the courtyard of Amenhotep III were leaning ominously. They are now propped up with wooden scaffolding, while preservation experts decide what to do next. The temple's limestone walls have cracked, and the Battle of Kadesh carved on its massive pylons has faded. A report suggesting ways to stabilize the ground underneath them from leaning farther is expected soon...
Deir al-Bahri. A 3,400-year-old tomb-and-temple complex near Luxor, it is threatened by landslides from a nearby mountain. The most likely remedy is a + chain-link fence to protect the monument from falling rocks. Meanwhile, the Polish Center of Archaeology in Cairo has been doing restoration work on parts of the temple. One project: using gypsum to patch up and refinish a statue of the god Osiris...
...spirited away by scholars and souvenir hunters. Such removals have become rare, but most visitors still have little interest in preservation. A few foreign groups, however, have made major contributions. The University of Chicago's Oriental Institute has been documenting and helping to preserve the temples and tombs at Luxor since the late 1920s. And perhaps the model project is the spectacular effort to restore Nefertari's tomb. The 32-century-old mausoleum, discovered in 1904, has been officially closed since the early 1950s because of its fragile condition. Beginning in 1986, the Getty Institute, in partnership with...
Such efforts will not keep pace with the inexorable deterioration of the monuments unless the Egyptians can speed up their preservation drive. That is why Mubarak's visit to Luxor, the first since he took office in 1981, was so significant. He not only called for a restoration of the Luxor Temple but also a halt to urban encroachments on all archaeological sites. If Mubarak does throw his power behind preservation, he may encourage the Egyptians to take charge of their own priceless heritage and other nations to lend a hand as well. After all, if the monuments...