Keep an eye on the Sphinx

From Al Ahram Weekly – Link to full article

While the SCA secretary-general was being interviewed for “Guardian’s Spotlight” in July 2008, pigeons were seen pecking away at the eyes and ear cavities of the Sphinx and their droppings were splattered on the stone. Jill Kamil discusses this new danger

The secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities had much to tell his interviewer on “Spotlight”. Zahi Hawass waxed lyrical about “exciting things” that have been happening in the field of archaeology — the discovery of a new tomb of a queen at Saqqara that has yet to be formally announced; the entrance to two tombs in the Valley of the Kings on which excavation will begin in October; and “big happenings” in Aswan, Edfu and Kom Ombo. He was enthusiastic about the “improvements” at Dendera and the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, and gave details of the new museums at Rashid, Arish, Minya and Amarna, as well as site management at Beni Hassan and Tuna Al-Gabel.

Zahi Hawass raved about the progress on the Civilisation Museum at Fustat and the Grand Egyptian Museum at Giza. Indeed, he also had much to say about the plan to upgrade the Pyramid Plateau and turn it into “a tourist-friendly and hawker-free zone”. He mentioned that the project’s security component included installing cameras, alarms and motion detectors, as well as building up a 20-kilometre fence.

I wonder if the new electronic security devices, however, while monitoring the movements of tourists and hawkers, cameleers and horse riders, will be able to pick up the unwelcome winged creatures that are finding a comfortable and shady roost in the eye and ear cavities of the Sphinx, and causing damage to the stone with their droppings. Apparently the pigeons are pecking away at this most grand and famous of monuments, finding in it an appetizing calcium meal.

Yet more focus on the Sphinx-Bird issue. Has the time come for the problem to be addressed? I am quite surprised to learn that some form of “anti-bird” measures have not been included in the Giza Plateau site management plan already, as this has been a known issue for quite some time.

 

Sphinx in dire need of a bird-repellent

From Daily News Egypt (May 29th) – Link to original article

By Ahmed Maged

CAIRO: The crowds of pigeons, doves and sparrows that have been landing regularly on several parts of the Sphinx indicate that the level of humidity is dangerously increasing within the stone structure of the statue, senior tour guide Bassam El Shammaa warned.

Visitors to the site have noticed birds settling on the statue’s head and the shaded northern part of the structure. Other birds sit in the shaded gaps that make up the Sphinx’s eyes and ears.

Besides leaving behind acidic droppings, the birds also slowly eat into the fragile stone as they pick the tiny grains of sand.

El Shammaa launched an on-line campaign last year called “Save the Sphinx,” in which he expanded on his theory that the rising groundwater levels endanger the monument, with water seeping into the stone and creating calcium deposits.

It is these calcium deposits, he says, that are attracting increased numbers of birds.

“I spoke to experts who told me about capillary action, a natural phenomenon that causes any fluid to ascend or descent through hair-like tubes,” he said.

“Most probably this is the Sphinx’s current condition: most specialists support the assumption that humidity must have ascended and interacted with the Sphinx’s limestone rock, resulting in a kind of calcium that is usually relished by pigeons,” he added.

“But we shouldn’t forget that the birds eat into the stone as they pick those tiny bits of calcium. The Sphinx has suffered enough and it’s about time to take immediate action. The effect of underground water coupled with the presence of these birds can result in the archaeological loss of one of the emblems of Egypt.

I am not a supporter of Bassam El Shammaa’s theories on the Sphinx, but the problems on the Giza Plateau caused by sewer water from nearby urban development (including some of the hotels in the immediate vicinity of the site) has been an issue for some time now. Whether or not this is the sole cause of the bird problems, I wouldn’t like to say. In temple sites, the presence of birds on site predates the water level changes in the late 20th century, so I don’t think the situation is - so to speak – quite as cut and dried as that. However, both issues, water table, and damage caused by bird droppings, are critical conservation issues, and the latter does tend to get less attention that it demands. Even a cursory uneducated glance at sites such as the Ramesseum will clearly show how damaging the effects of both these problems can be.