Environmental Aspects

Luxor is the smallest of Egypt’s governorates and is located in Upper Egypt (southern Egypt), and encompasses the Ancient Egyptian city of Thebes. The climate of Luxor is classified as a ‘hyper-desert’ as the city has the hottest summer days of any other city in Egypt, alongside Aswan, of an average summer higher or 40⁰C, and 22⁰C in the coolest month of the year. Precipitation sits at a yearly average of 1mm, which is significantly lower than most of the Sahara; rainfall does not occur every year. Despite this low rainfall year-round, there have been around 24 historical flash flood events since the first tombs of the Valley of the Kings were constructed, which has contributed to monument deterioration, the most recent being the 1994 flood. Due to the dry climate, the Avenue of the Sphinxes has been covered by 15 metres of sand and clay which has been gradually removed from 1940, in great celebration at the 2021 reopening. The city remains sunny year-round, reaching 4,000 years of annual sunshine, which attracts visitors to the location.

           Luxor is often referred to as the “world’s greatest open-air museum”, due to its numerous ruins and monuments, such as Karnak and Luxor Temple which are situated within the modern city. However, many of these famed monuments are deteriorating due to environmental constraints, such as the capillary raising of groundwater. This rising groundwater decimates the sandstones blocks, which are at risk of deterioration due to temple foundation lying directly on the earth. Further environmental impacts on the monuments include the increased flooding in the Necropolis which increasingly fluctuates humidity and thus causes rock spalling and fracturing. Impacts of tourism on resources worsens these environment issues, especially with an inadequate management plan to control these issues. Man-made elements also threaten these infamous physical memories of the past; since the 1970 construction of the Aswan High Dam, the Nile river has been depositing layers of alluvial soil several meters thick. This has adverse effects on the sandstone temples, as the upper soil levels near the sites has a high concentration of salts.