Situation Du Site Internet

Christiane Desroches Noblecourt

Having alerted Nasser and his government to the crisis, she promised to liaise with Unesco, based in Paris, to coordinate the uniquely ambitious rescue operation. Working with the newly appointed Unesco director, René Maheu, and the Egyptian Minister for Culture, Sarwat Okacha, Christiane Desroches Noblecourt began a race against time to save as much as possible before the temples and their secrets were inundated for ever deep beneath the Aswan reservoir.

Some suggested building a barrage around the site, but this was abandoned when it became clear that, despite lying 180 miles south of Aswan, the temple would be submerged beneath 60 metres of water following the dam's construction.

The only option was to saw it into pieces, and rebuild it, like a vast Lego set. So, after assembling huge teams of workers in the sparsely populated region, an eight-year effort began to slice 1,042 blocks, some weighing 20 tonnes, from the mountainside and reassemble them 90 metres higher on an artificially created mound. Today, Abu Simbel remains one of Egypt's most celebrated sites, though the sun's rays now strike Amun-Ra a day later than they used to.

Other sites proved equally challenging. The temple of Kalabsha features several immaculate relief carvings and was the second-largest site to be relocated. The German team in charge of saving it dismantled it stone by stone, and moved them almost 30 miles, near to Aswan.

On the island of Philae, 104 metres above sea level and home to a vast archaeological complex, the new dam was having a different, if equally destructive, effect. The problem was that the island had been submerged, by and large safely, by an earlier dam. But the Aswan High dam was to lower the waters at Philae, partially revealing the island's marvels. It was forecast that fluctuations in the reservoir between 102 and 110 metres above sea level would create a tidal effect that would soon sweep the ancient buildings away.

To save them, a ring of steel was built around the island, with the remaining water pumped out. After cleaning, each structure was dismantled into tens of thousands of bricks, and relocated on higher ground.

Perhaps the trickiest rescue of all, however, was that overseen by the French themselves at Amada, where three pharaohs, including Amenhotep II, had created one of Egypt's most richly-decorated sites – a temple covered with brightly-coloured, painted reliefs. It was evident to Christiane Desroches Noblecourt that block-by-block dismantling that had been successful at other sites would destroy the reliefs at Amada.

Blogging Pompeii: Pompéi, patrimoine en péril?

Francesco Bandarin: Deux missions d’experts se sont déjà rendues sur place au cours des derniers mois. Or je dirais que si le cas de Pompéi est compliqué par ce qu’il se déroule dans une région « complexe », le problème, lui, est simple. Il manque tout simplement de l’argent ! Ce qui se passe là est absurde. La billetterie produit 25 millions d’euros de recette avec les seules entrées des visiteurs et ce site –qui est une ville antique- ne fonctionne qu’avec un seul archéologue et trois ouvriers !! C’est une situation invraisemblable! Il y a là un véritable problème d’allocation de ressources, techniques et financières.

Organisation et opérations financières du FMI

Annual Report of the Executive Board, Financial Year 2007

Anthropologica

Monographie du district de Bamako

Man's role in the shaping of the eastern Mediterranean landscape, proceedings of the INQUA/BAI Symposium on the Impact of Ancient Man on the Landscape of the Eastern Mediterranean Region and the Near East, Groningen, Netherlands, 6-9 March 1989