Featured Conservation Projects
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The American Research Center in Egypt has been actively helping to conserve Egyptian monuments since 1993. With funds generously provided by the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and in close collaboration with Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), over fifty projects have now been completed.
The scope of ARCE conservation work covers all periods of Egyptian art and architecture at monuments and sites throughout the country from pre-historic to Islamic. ARCE’s Egyptian Antiquities Conservation Project (EAC) encompasses the latest series of projects to be implemented under an agreement with USAID begun in 2004. In 2007 additional funding specifically for conservation and training in the Luxor area was received, and work is well underway.
Recognizing that the future of Egypt’s monuments must rest ultimately with Egyptian archaeologists and conservators, ARCE’s conservation initiatives include a significant emphasis on training for our Egyptian colleagues. Since 1995 some three-hundred SCA employees have participated in ARCE’s training programs. These initiatives have received enthusiastic support from Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities.
A selection of current conservation projects is featured below.
The Karnak and Luxor temple complexes on the East Bank of the Nile at Luxor are, without a doubt, iconic symbols of ancient Egypt. Yet, rising ground water has, until recently, been slowly destroying these sites. In 2006, USAID (United States Agency for International Development) funded a groundwater lowering project at the two temple complexes. Now, with a new multi-million dollar USAID grant add-on to the Egyptian Antiquities Conservation Program (EAC), ARCE has begun an essential monitoring and conservation project at the two temple complexes.
The church of Saints Bishai and Bigol, the ‘Red Monastery,’ was the heart of a large monastic community, in a region known as an important center for ascetic life in the 5th century, A.D. It is an astonishingly rare example of the coloristic intensity of late antique monuments in Egypt. In this church, late antique paintings cover about eighty percent of the walls, niches, columns, pilasters, pediments and apses. ARCE has administered the first major campaign of conservation, art historical study, and publication of the Red Monastery church sanctuary. Thanks to the amazing results of this joint ARCE-USAID conservation project, the monastery is already being mentioned in company with other outstanding Late Antique buildings such as San Vitale (Ravenna), and the Hagia Sophia (Istanbul). The project is directed by Dr. Elizabeth Bolman of Temple University.
Khonsu Temple is a beautiful example of an almost complete New Kingdom temple and is well worth exploring. But, due to its location--somewhat off the beaten track at Karnak--it is rarely visited by tourists.
The Supreme Council of Antiquities has asked ARCE to prepare the Khonsu Temple for easier and safer access to tour groups, and now ARCE is leading four distinct projects in and around the area.
