With its temples and the nearby Valley of the Queens and Valley of the Kings, Egypt’s Luxor is one of the richest archaeological zones in the world.

But, says Burnham: “Luxor is one of the great catastrophe areas in the world with the convergence of environmental factors, man-made factors and unmanaged tourism.”

The most disastrous problems are rising water tables and the farming of sugar cane, a crop that introduces fertilisers and other chemicals into the ground water.

Burnham said archaeologists are trying to pull antiquities out of the ground before they’re destroyed by the ground water and pollutants.

Adding to the problem are thousands of tourists who arrive by bus from Sinai resorts all at the same time.

“Egypt,” she said, “has a very specific tourism goal for Luxor — to reach 10 million visitors a year by 2010.”

World treasures under attack, The Age, Australia, December 26, 2006.

British police are investigating the role of one of the country’s biggest construction firms in what was originally a £71m contract to rebuild the Great Library of Alexandria, one of the wonders of the ancient world.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has interviewed several employees of Balfour Beatty over their role in the contract in Egypt to build one of the architectural jewels of the Middle East.

A Unesco world heritage site, the modern Bibliotheca Alexandrina, on the shores of the Mediterranean, was completed in 2001. The library and cultural centre was designed to commemorate the original library, whose loss in antiquity was said to have changed the course of western civilisation.

Sources close to the inquiry said detectives were focusing on why the fixed-price contract issued by the Egyptian education ministry apparently rose by more than £50m after the work was commissioned...

Fraud probe over a wonder of the world, David Leppard, The Times, UK, December 10, 2006.

“The Step Pyramid is collapsing,” Zahi Hawass, Head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) says. “The substructure of the Pyramid of Djoser (another name for the Step Pyramid) is a series of tunnels about seven kilometres long. These have been collapsing for the last 50 years and unfortunately no one has done anything about it until now.”

Tour buses are the main culprits, according to SCA studies. In peak season large groups of buses sit just outside the site idling their engines and creating vibrations that reach all the way to the Step Pyramid. In October, Hawass announced that doing so now constitutes a crime.

“There is a new criminal charge called damaging antiquities. It will fall under the same law as stealing them, and we are going to have much harsher penalties,” he states. Because it is still new, no one is sure what kinds of difficulties will be encountered with pressing charges. For emphasis he adds, “If you run your motor on the site, you will go to jail.”

Even while acknowledging potential problems, Hawass is pleased with the new law. “I’m sure that the prospect of jail, for however long it is, will make people think twice about these things...”

Bad Vibrations, Cache Seel, Egypt Today, Volume 27, Issue 12, December 2006.

The ninth Conference of Arab Archaeologists took place in Egypt last month, under the auspices of Amr Moussa, secretary general of the Arab League. The conference looked at over 100 research papers focusing mainly on ways to protect and restore Lebanese and Palestinian antiquities from Israeli aggression. The conference also looked at the havoc the American occupation has wreaked on Iraqi antiquities. The conference honoured Sheikha Hussa Al-Sabah, the curator of the House of Islamic Antiquities in Kuwait. The participants’ recommendations highlighted the need for a database to connect Arab antiquarians and make their work accessible to each other.

Culture 101: Preserving Arab Antiquities, MJ, Egypt Today, Volume 27, Issue 12, December 2006.

Since the 1960s and ’70s, libraries in the West have been digitizing their catalogues and even the contents of their shelves, but a lack of resources has kept all but the most well funded Middle Eastern libraries from doing the same. The Yale University Library hopes to correct this situation, bringing the fruits of Middle Eastern scholars’ labours into the digital age.

Although the ivy-league university based in Connecticut has received $1.3 million in funding from the US’ Department of Education (DOE) and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) since the digitizing efforts began five years ago, the continuing success of their two projects depends as much on the enthusiasm of the participants as on their continued funding.

The first project, Online Access for Consolidated Information about Serials (OACIS), is a searchable list of catalogue information compiled from the 20 participating libraries around the world, including the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) and that of the American University in Cairo. The OACIS list is composed entirely of catalogue data of scholarly journals from and about the Middle East.

“The catalogue records are information about the journals, they are not the stuff itself,” explains Ann Okerson, Yale’s associate university librarian for collections and international programs. “The ‘sexy’ word is ‘metadata’...”

Go Digital, Dan Reese, Egypt Today, Volume 27, Issue 12, December 2006.

Egypt announced the discovery of a carving dating back to the 12th century BC which could hold the key to valuable information on Karnak temple, the largest ancient religious site in the world.

The large quartzite stone, carved with 17 lines of hieroglyphics, highlights the achievements of high priest Bak En Khonsu and his contributions to the grand hall at Karnak.

The 170 cm by 80 cm carving (5.5 by 2.5 feet), unearthed by a team of archaeologists in the southern Nile city of Luxor, also depicts the high priest's family tree.

"This is very important because we never knew anything about Bak En Khonsu," the second most important man after the king, said Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.

"This is going to reconstruct history and will enrich our understanding of Karnak," he told AFP. The stone was found by a team of Egyptian archaeologists...

Ancient Egyptian carving sheds light on Karnak temple, AFP via PhysOrg, USA, December 18, 2006.

cf. Ancient Egyptian carving sheds light on Karnak temple, AFP via Yahoo! News, USA, December 17, 2006.

cf. Ancient Egyptian carving sheds light on Karnak temple, AFP via Middle East Times, Cyprus, December 18, 2006.

Egyptian archaeologists discover significant carving

The Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) announced the find to the press and said that the carving dates back to the 12th century BC and the reign of King Setnakht, founder of the [20th] dynasty and father of Ramses III...

cf. Egyptian archaeologists discover significant carving, UKTV History, UK, December, 2006.

20th dynasty tablet unearthed

“The hieroglyphic text on the tablet says that the [high] priest [of Amun, Bak En Khonsu,] supervised the construction of the main hall of the Karnak Temple,” Hawass added...

cf. 20th dynasty tablet unearthed, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, December 18, 2006.

12th century BC carving may hold the secret of Karnak Temple

Dr Zahi Hawass ... explained that the large quartzite stone, carved with 17 lines of hieroglyphics, highlights the achievements of high priest Bak En Khonsu and his contributions to the grand hall at Karnak.

Hawass told reporters that the stone consists of two parts: the upper part depicts King Setnakht lying prostrate with the blue crown on his head. He offers the symbol of justice to the supreme deity Amun Ra, that appears sitting on his throne while holding with his left hand Alwast — emblem of the city of Thebes — and in his right, the key of life.

Behind Amun Ra Goddess Mut — one of Thebes’ Trinity that consists of Amun, Mut and son Khonsu — is depicted raising her left hand, a gesture meant to bestow protection on the king, Hawass added.

Seventeen lines of hieroglyphic text are carved on the lower part of the stone, followed by an illustration of chief Amun priest Bak En Khonsu, seen in a worshipping posture and in full official priest attire...

cf. 12th century BC carving may hold the secret of Karnak Temple, Ahmed Maged, Daily Star Egypt, Egypt, December 19, 2006.