Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Pyramids of Giza in peril

An eye-opening look at some of the problems facing conservation of the Giza pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, highlighting the problems caused by camel touts, but also raising everything from accidental damage caused by tourists, and the problems of Cairo's own environment:
"Doused with airborne pollution, rattled by the weight of encroaching traffic, tainted by underground sewage, and encrusted with the accumulated salt of thousands of perspiring tourists, the wonders of Egypt's past are mired in a struggle that threatens their very existence.
Nowhere is that conflict being waged with greater acrimony or conviction than here on the Plateau of Giza at Cairo's western edge, where this voracious African megalopolis has all but consumed the most famous limestone jewels in Egypt's ancient crown.
You wouldn't know it from the tourist posters, which invariably depict the pyramids and the Sphinx against a lonely backdrop of desert sand, but in fact these structures are now within a 30-metre camel-ride of traffic-choked urban avenues and six-storey apartment blocks, bristling with satellite dishes.
The one-time hamlet of Nazlet as-Samaan is now a teeming urban district with a population estimated at about 200,000, with environmental problems to match.
Can a huge, modern North African city, with its cars and trucks, its factories and filth, its burgeoning humanity and woefully inadequate services, successfully co-exist with the ancient tombs and monuments of long-ago pharaohs?"

2 comments:

Unknown said...

This is another frightening indication of man's arrogant and wasteful domination of this planet. The indications of man doing damage to the planet are increasing every day. When are we going to learn, if we destroy this home there is no place to go?

Anonymous said...

I agree with this completely, thanks for the post.