Temples of Doom

Via Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub I’ve discovered that today is Blog Action Day. The aim is to have promote environmental issues. I can’t put up the blog post I’d like to for reasons which may become obvious when it arrives. So instead it’s another video from Al Jazeera.

Temples of Doom is about the threat to archaeological sites from rising groundwater in Nile Valley. Development of agriculture along the Nile is increasing the salinity of the water. This reacts with the sandstone and the earliest history in the world flakes away. Creating more trouble are plans to increase the number of tourists to Egypt’s ancient sites. I’ve mixed feelings about this because the damage could potentially be devastating, even if you ban the kind of idiot who can’t resist picking at the walls to see how easily they flake. At the same time tourism is massively important to the Egyptian economy, and archaeology is better when it’s publicly accessible.

I think it’s a well-written documentary. There’s a variety of experts on, including Kent Weeks and a few others from the Theban Mapping Project. It’s also a subject that I wasn’t really very aware of. I thought the major cause of damage was the humid breath of tourists in previously arid chambers.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLBbO24x8P0″>

and part two