Word: tombs
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Covering the ceilings and walls of the queen's tomb in the royal necropolis -- a honeycomb of chambers carved into the limestone mountains at Thebes -- the paintings have been sheltered from the fierce winds and scorching heat of the middle Nile Valley. Indeed, some of the bright-hued images are as vivid today as when they were first daubed onto the plastered interior of the tomb more than 3,000 years ago. But though the colors are still brilliant, the plaster underneath is deteriorating. Nearly a third of the paintings have already flaked off. The plaster behind others is loosening...
...sorry state of Nefertari's tomb is typical of the condition of many of the most important monuments of Egyptian antiquity. Some of the pillars and stones of Memphis, a capital of ancient Egypt, are standing in pools of water. Reliefs carved in the sandstone walls of the temples of Luxor and Karnak are eroding, and some of the stones are stained. Chunks of plaster are falling off the walls of the temple at Abydos, an ancient religious center...
...water penetrates the stone, dissolves the salt and in the form of a saline solution migrates back toward the surface. There the moisture evaporates, leaving behind the salts, which recrystallize, forcing apart the grains of stone. The result is a flaking and crumbling surface. In Nefertari's tomb, says Bell, "salt has just bubbled up and pushed the plaster off the walls...
...Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. In a torchlight ceremony at the Soviet war memorial in East Berlin, ranks of blue-shirted youngsters from the Communist Free German Youth saluted the 5,000 Soviet soldiers buried there...
...France, V-E day was a holiday, but in many respects it seemed business as usual. President Francois Mitterrand, a former Resistance fighter, reviewed troops in a brief ceremony and placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beneath the Arc de Triomphe. He also sent a message to the Soviet Union in which he said that "the French have not forgotten the sacrifices of the Soviet people" in the battle against fascism...