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Monitoring the Environmental Risks Around Medinet Habu and Ramesseum Temple at West Luxor, Egypt, Using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques

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Abstract

Today, the preservation of cultural heritage is a pressing issue especially for territories subjected to a long period of human action that could adversely influence environment and heritage properties, thus producing a deterioration of archaeological features and alteration of historical landscape. In this paper, the environmental risks and their effects on preservation issues are investigated for the archaeological area of the Luxor city (south of Egypt) where the most famous Temples in Egypt are located. A comprehensive analysis has been conducted for the Ramesseum and Medinet Habu temples considering their building material and characteristics, environmental (geological and hydrological) setting, and past and ongoing changes around the monument areas. Satellite multitemporal images have been used to detect all the changes mainly linked to the expansion of urban and agriculture areas. Results from the analysis conducted along with in situ investigations have suggested that many of the environmental problems around the archaeological areas are coming as a result of urban and agriculture sprawling. Both of them strongly influence the distribution in the levels of groundwater which along with temperature are considered as the main causes of the deterioration process affecting the Medinet Habu and Ramesseum temple. The degree of weathering damage appears to be much more dependent on exposure characteristics of the investigation areas, especially as related to salt weathering processes. Innovative solutions to support the preservation of these temples are herein presented and discussed.

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Acknowledgments

These results are part of the PhD thesis of Mr. Abdelaziz Elfadaly. The authors would like to express their appreciation to the National Authority for Remote Sensing & Space Sciences (NARSS) for funding the PhD data. Thanks are given to the Institute of Methodologies for Environmental Analysis (CNR) for the support and for funding the publication. Thanks are also given to the Egyptian Cultural Affairs sector and the missions (Ministry of Higher Education) for funding the PhD study at Basilicata University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UNIBAS, University of Basilicata, Potenza, 85100, Italy

    Abdelaziz Elfadaly

  2. CNR-IMAA, C.da S. Loja 85050 Tito Scalo (PZ), Potenza, Italy

    Abdelaziz Elfadaly & Rosa Lasaponara

  3. NARSS, National Authority for Remote Sensing & Space Sciences, Cairo, Egypt

    Abdelaziz Elfadaly & Wael Attia

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  1. Abdelaziz Elfadaly
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  2. Wael Attia
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  3. Rosa Lasaponara
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Correspondence to Rosa Lasaponara.

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Elfadaly, A., Attia, W. & Lasaponara, R. Monitoring the Environmental Risks Around Medinet Habu and Ramesseum Temple at West Luxor, Egypt, Using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques. J Archaeol Method Theory 25, 587–610 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-017-9347-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-017-9347-x

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