7. The environmental factors affecting the archaeological buildings in Egypt, Part-I

There are many monumental sites and stone buildings distributed all over Egypt especially in the contemporaneous time. These sites and stone buildings suffer from several extrinsic and intrinsic factors of deterioration which could be divided into several effects such as air temperature, relative humidity, wind erosion and air pollution. All of these factors cause a great harmful appearance that results from chemical, physical and biological weathering of stone surfaces. From the specialized point of view, one of the most important archeological sites in Pharaonic Egypt was chosen to assess and evaluate its deterioration conditions (Ramsis II Temple in Abydos). Our results proved that both of them were affected through different deterioration factors that led finally to several deterioration forms which can be concluded as follows: * Collapsing of the cohesiveness and interrelation between the components of stone. * Presence of some salt layers on the stone surfaces (efflorescence) and beneath the stone surface (sub-efflorescence). * Existence of some deteriorated forms especially desert hard crusts. * Disintegrating the stone surfaces that appear in several forms of deterioration such as granular and rotate erosion, in addition scraping and scratching forms affecting the stone surfaces. * Presences of some soiling particles on the stone surfaces, and existing of some salty and hard crust layers composed essentially of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) and gypsum (Ca SO₄.2H₂O).