Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Water damage to Nile monuments

An article looking at dangers to Egyptian monuments - from the recent Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa fatwa to the damage caused to Luxor sites by irrigation: "The tourist industry is Egypt’s largest source of private employment and is one of the country’s largest sources of revenue. Terrorist attacks, fluctuations in the world economy and general unrest in parts of the Middle East all affect the industry to some extent. But the greatest threat to many of Egypt’s antiquities and the industry built around them may not be from misinterpreted fatwas or extremist’s bombs, but from an icon as Egyptian as the Great Pyramids of Giza: the Nile. . . . Much of the groundwater and its greatly increased salinity levels come from an unexpected side effect of regulating the flow of the Nile. Even though the river maintains a constant high level, the end of the traditional flood season means that man-made irrigation is now necessary even on the flood-plain. In addition to the new irrigation systems, chemical fertilizers have contributed to the erosion of the ancient columns."
See the above page for more.

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