Luxor Temple Conservation Update

Luxor News Blog (Jane Akshar)

Luxor Temple Conservation Update - February 2012 | American Research Center in Egypt

Three-thousand, five-hundred years is a long time for any building to stand, and it comes as no surprise that, today, Luxor temple is in need of some help. Many of its columns in the first court, for example, have been showing the very serious effects of exposure to the elements and prior maintenance efforts. To address these issues, ARCE began a project in 2008 to assess and conserve the columns in the Ramesses II court. This work runs in tandem with our larger conservation initiative on the East Bank and forms part of our Egyptian conservator training program.

Under the management of ARCE Luxor’s Associate Director, John Shearman, ARCE conservator Khadiga Adam has supervised and instructed 28 conservators and 10 craftsmen over the past two years to address the columns’ problems. Visitors to the temple can immediately see our team’s progress, as they work in plain sight to the west of the Ramesses II court’s Amun, Mut and Khonsu shrines.

Between 2010 and 2011 this exacting work has involved a number of stages. Before conserving anything, each column needed to be studied and documented.