A drainage system inaugurated in Egypt should make it possible to preserve the catacombs of Kom el-Shouqafa previously threatened by rising groundwater like several other ancient sites.
Photo of Kom El-Shoqafa catacombs taken on March 3, 2019.
A civil engineering program to better preserve the 2,000-year-old catacombs of Kom el-Shouqafa against rising groundwater that threatens this tourist archaeological site was inaugurated on March 3, 2019 in Alexandria by Egyptian authorities. Work on this modernization project, carried out with the help of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), began in November 2017 to equip the site with six drainage pumps. "It's a unique program that combined archeology and civil engineering ", said Thomas Nichols, a consulting engineer who participated in the project.
More than 100 million dollars released by the United States
Used from the 1st to the 4th century AD during the Roman Empire, the catacombs of Kom el-Shouqafa were discovered in 1900 and are considered the most famous and important in Alexandria. Combining Egyptian, Roman and Greek styles, they consist of a set of three underground tombs, dug into limestone rocks and housing the graves of wealthy families of the time.
Visitors in the catacombs of Kom el-Shouqafa on March 3, 2019 ©Mohamed el-Shahed / AFP
In 1985, the Egyptian authorities launched a groundwater drainage program using a permanent pumping system. In 2015, USAID agreed to fund the modernization of this program. "We immediately requested the launch of a new project in Kom el-Shouqafa to put an end to this groundwater problem that has threatened the area for more than a hundred years ", said Egyptian Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Enany during the inauguration of the program. This project is "an example of the support of the United States to the Egyptian government in the preservation of its cultural heritage ", said Tom Goldberger, charge d'affaires of the United States in Egypt. According to him, Washington spent "more than one hundred million dollars " (88 million euros) to this area, "over the last decades ".
Photo taken on March 3, 2019 of a statue present in the catacombs of Kom El-Shoqafa. © Mohamed al-Shahed / AFP
© Mohamed al-Shahed / AFP
Tourist sites threatened by rising water levels
Egypt has recently intensified its communication around new archaeological discoveries and restoration projects for ancient sites, with the aim in particular of reviving the tourism sector, which has been in difficulty since the popular uprising of 2011. But several ancient Egyptian sites are threatened by the rise of groundwater, which weakens their foundations, including the temple of Karnak in Luxor or the plateau of the Sphinx in Giza. The rise of groundwater is linked to various factors, in particular to a very greedy irrigation system, to urbanization, to sewage leaks, to the rise in sea level linked to climate change or to artificial dams. .