Abstract
Over the past 35 years, the exposed stone foundations of the ancient Egyptian monuments at Luxor have deteriorated at an alarmingly accelerated rate. Accelerated deterioration is attributable to three principal factors: 1) excavation and exposure of foundation stone; 2) construction of the Aswan High Dam; and 3) changes in the regional groundwater regime. In an effort to better elucidate the hydrostratigraphy in the Luxor study area that extends from the River Nile to the boundaries of the Nile Valley and covers about 70 km2, a geophysical/hydrological investigation was conducted. Forty Schlumberger vertical electrical soundings (VES), two approximately 6 km long seismic refraction profiles and a total number of 39 groundwater and surface water samples were acquired. Based on the integrated interpretation of the acquired geophysical/hydrological data, the main contributions of this study were the geophysical definition of the hydrostratigraphy using resistivity (seven distinct geologic/hydrologic units were mapped), the mapping of the water table using seismic refraction and the mapping of groundwater salinity trends through geochemical sampling. The factors contributing to the rise of groundwater and its accompanying increase in salinity were identified and documented. This characterization establishes a model for evaluating various plans to lower groundwater levels and salinities in the areas of archeological monuments.
Recommended Citation
A. Ismail et al., "Hydrogeophysical Investigation at Luxor, Southern Egypt," Journal of Environmental and Engineering Geophysics, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 35 - 49, Environmental and Engineering Geophysical Society (EEGS), Mar 2005.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.2113/JEEG10.1.35
Department(s)
Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering
Keywords and Phrases
Flooding; Floodplain; Hydrogeophysics; Vertical Electrical Sounding (VES); Algorithms; Database Systems; Evaporation; Groundwater; Hydrology; Sandstone; Stratigraphy; Geophysics; Archaeology; Geophysical Survey; Africa; Eastern Hemisphere; Egypt; North Africa; World
Geographic Coverage
Egypt
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
1083-1363
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Final Version
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2005 Environmental and Engineering Geophysical Society (EEGS), All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Mar 2005