Protecting the Valley of the Kings
Egypt

Protecting the Valley of the Kings


drhawass.com

I always say that the Egyptian monuments will be completely destroyed in less than 100 years if tourism isn’t managed properly. Tourism is the number one threat to the Egyptian antiquities.

In Egypt we have started many important site management projects in order to protect the monuments, and I have published many articles about my ideas. When I became Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, we initiated site management projects at Abu Simbel, the Unfinished Obelisk in Aswan, Edfu, Kom Ombo, the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut’s Temple in Luxor, and at Dendera. We are currently finishing site management projects at Giza and Saqqara, as well as working at Tell Basta, and San el-Hagar (Tanis), and this week we have completed our project at Pompey’s Pillar in Alexandria.

In order to have a high quality site management program it is important to have a means of protecting the site, an educational introduction within a visitor’s centre, well-trained personnel, a programme for restoration and conservation, and, outside of the site, facilities for tourists, such as cafeterias, a bazaar, and clean bathrooms.
The Valley of the Kings is a special case. Here, tourists concentrate on visiting certain tombs – especially the tombs of Tutankhamun, Ramesses VI, and Horemheb – while others are hardly visited at all, even though the valley contains sixty-three tombs in total. This means that some tombs need added protection, while others need to be closed completely in order to save the ancient paintings.

We are currently installing lighting in the Valley of the Kings so that people will be able to visit the tombs in the evening. This will help to protect the paintings because it allows us to spread the tourist visits out over the course of the day – they will need to make reservations for the morning, early afternoon or evening. This will allow the tombs to escape from the extra heat and moisture that builds up in them over the course of the day.

Three special tombs are so important and beautiful that they need to be carefully protected: the tombs of Tutankhamun, Nefertari and Seti I. The latter two are currently closed to the public to help preserve them. In order to allow visitors to Luxor to still see the paintings in these beautiful tombs, yet still keep them closed, we contacted Adam Lowe of Factum Arte. He is currently making detailed high-resolution copies of the tomb scenes using laser scanners. The images that these scanners create look almost exactly like the original paintings.


See the above page for the full story, with photos.




- Replicas In The Valley Of The Kings?
Al Ahram Weekly (Riad Tawfik) Tourism experts have greeted a plan to open replica tombs for tourists on the west bank at Luxor with considerable scepticism, writes Riad Tawfik Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) has recently announced a radical plan...

- Tourism: Tourist Regulations In The Vok
drhawass.com Many people who come to Egypt like to take pictures everywhere, to remember their visit. However, many people come into the Cairo Museum and take pictures with flash, even though there are signs everywhere saying no flash photography, which...

- What's Going On In Luxor?
Al Ahram Weekly (Jill Kamil) An excellent survey of both the current work to conserve monuments and the increasing number of threats to the well being of such sites from a number of different sources. We all know that the "mansions of millions of years",...

- Site Management In Egypt
drhawass.com (Zahi Hawass) I am very proud that since I took office as the Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, I have been able to bring the concept of site management to Egypt for the first time. We are now implementing comprehensive,...

- Saving Kings Tombs In The Valley
Certainly the most important decorated tombs should be closed to protect the wall decorations but there must be a way of sealing off the painted burial chamber of Tutankhamen from tourists standing in the antechamber. Also tombs who's decoration is...



Egypt








.