Archaeologist Paul Barford was due to fly out to Egypt next Wednesday as part of an excavation team and has naturally been monitoring events extremely closely. This article and a number of others on his blog give an impression of just how dangerous the current situation is for Egypt’s treasures.
Here’s one of the three or four gentlemen recently guarding the Seti I temple
Image Credit Paul Barford. December 2009
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30/01/2011 at 14:11
Eric
Although I have every sympathy with the plight of the Egyptian people, Egyptian monuments, sites and antiquities should be protected to the hilt.
Sadly that’s easier said than done. I know Luxor fairly well, having spent 2 weeks there some years ago, visiting sites within the town and nearby. If the looters decide to go for it there’s very little chance they can be stopped completely. Artefacts, and temples are everywhere – I mean *everywhere*, with some smaller temples (still with murals) in the middle of nowhere, perhaps with only a padlocked gate to keep intruders out. There’s simply no way to protect them all. In which case I’d suggest that the priority should be to protect the museums as they contain so much that can be easily looted (Luxor has a very good little museum which should also be protected). From what I can remember there’s only one access road to each of the Valley of Kings and the Valley of the Queens so they should be fairly easy to protect.
It really is priority time though – guard the important vulnerable stuff first and foremost!