Egyptian Antiquities in danger, more efforts needed to save them

As the 34th Meeting of the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO wrapped up in Brasilia on Tuesday, an Egyptian scholar said some Egyptian world heritages are in danger and called for more attention and protection for them.

Abdul halim Nurreddin, a professor of antiquity in Cairo University, said in an interview with Xinhua on Tuesday that a lot of antiquities in Egypt and other Arab countries are in danger because of expansion of house building, reclaiming lands, rising of underground water and moister levels.

"Many of Egyptian antiquities need to be saved and protected, especially in northern Egypt (Delta governorates) as they are near to the sea and the underground water," Noureddin, former secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said.

Noureddin called on Egypt to save these antiquities through exerting efforts to decrease the underground water levels, issuing new laws which limit reclaiming and building expansion, referring that UNESCO is helping Egypt to save these antiquities.

"Protecting monuments needs high technical requirements, high professional restorers besides a high budget and a lot of study on the environmental situation around the monuments," he said.

He took Alexandria as an example which needs to be protected as it is imposed to heavy rain which affects the Romanian and Greece antiquities located there everywhere.


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