“The Battle for Abu Simbel”: Archaeology and Postcolonial Diplomacy in the UNESCO Campaign for Nubia

This essay examines the role and agency of British archaeologists in the discussions surrounding Egypt’s construction of the Aswan High Dam beginning in the late 1950s. The dam was conceived as a grand engineering project that would create new farmland and make Egypt self-sufficient in terms of its energy needs, but flooding caused by the dam threatened to destroy numerous archaeological sites along the Nile River on the border of Egypt and Sudan. With the blessing of the Egyptian and Sudanese governments, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) launched a complex rescue operation in 1960 with the goal of surveying the affected sites, in some cases removing entire structures to safe locations. Despite Britain’s initial reluctance—four years after the Suez crisis—to participate in a program that would benefit an avowedly hostile regime, British scientific expertise and private fundraising soon came to play an important role in UNESCO’s ‘Campaign for Nubia’. Using diplomatic papers and the records of various scientific bodies, I will argue that British participation in the UNESCO archaeological program was a crucial avenue for Anglo-Egyptian rapprochement during the 1960s and 1970s.

Estimation of sediment capacity of Aswan High Dam Lake utilizing remotely sensed bathymetric data: Case Study Active Sedimentation portion of Lake Nubia

<p>This study deals with the quantitative estimation of the accumulated sediment capacity within the period from the initiation of the storage process of Lake Nubia in 1964 until 2012, by using field measurements and remote sensing data.. The bed levels of the study area related to year 1964 were extracted from a tri-dimensional model of the lake derived from a topographic map, based on observations anterior to lake filling. This map was compared with the bed levels estimated for the year 2012, which were extracted from remote sensing data, with the aim to estimate the sediment capacity. The utilized technique for estimating the bathymetric data (depths) from satellite images relies on establishing a Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) model between in situ measurements and reflectance data from multi-spectral optical satellite observations. The Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) model showed good results in the correlation between field measurements and remote sensing data. The current approach provides flexibility as well as effective time and cost management in calculating depths from remote sensing data when compared to the traditional method applied by Aswan High Dam Authority (AHDA). This study is in the framework of a bilateral project between ASRT of Egypt and CNR of Italy, which is still running.</p><p> </p>

The stages of reconstruction works on preserving the Great Temple at Abu Simbel

In view of the possible solutions to the question of preservation of cultural heritage, the experts in various fields face a problem of appropriateness of the selected solution or approach towards specific object, which method should be used in a particular case, what difficulties may impede the implementation of plan for preservation of cultural monument. Taking into account the importance to meet the requirements on preservation of cultural heritage sites and avoid the change of appearance, spatial planning, design solutions and structure of the object, the question of preservation becomes more complicated and relevant. This article provides example of one of the first projects for preservation of the monuments of ancient civilization, conducted by UNESCO, which allowed acquiring an invaluable experience of reconstructing the world significant sites located outside of Europe. A detailed analysis is carried out on restoration of the world heritage site, which due to the construction of Aswan High Dam on the Nile River, was on the edge of being lost. Thus, considering various proposals pertinent to preservation of the Great Temple at Abu Simbel, provided by organizations and individual experts from different countries, as well as the challenges faced in implementation of the approved plan, it is possible to find new solutions for other UNESCO sites that need to be preserved and restored due to various factors influencing their integrity and conservation

The Dammed Body: Thinking Historically about Water Security & Public Health

This essay traces the historical relationship between the construction of the Nile River and the prevalence of disease in Egypt in the long twentieth century, with an eye to the relevance of this history to other regions on the African continent impacted by the construction of large dams. Beginning in the second decade of the nineteenth century and stretching through the 1970s, the Nile River underwent a dramatic process of transformation. Two large dams–the 1902 Khazan Aswan and the Aswan High Dam–were constructed on the river. Networks of perennial irrigation canals facilitated the practice of year-round agricultural production and the High Dam provided electricity. The remaking of Egypt's riparian ecologies also had important implications for the health of Egypt's population as these ecologies were associated with new landscapes of disease and approaches to biomedical treatment.

Records of Dispossession: Archival Thinking and UNESCO's Nubian Campaign in Egypt and Sudan

This article discusses the creation of architectural and archaeological archives in newly independent Egypt and Sudan during the International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, organized by UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). This initiative took place in the contiguous border regions of Egyptian and Sudanese Nubia from 1960 until 1980 in response to the building of the Aswan High Dam. Contingency in these archives demonstrates the necessity of acknowledging the (post-) colonial social and historical conditions in which they were produced. UNESCO's campaign sought to record ancient remains that would be submerged by the High Dam's floodwaters. During the campaign, UNESCO set up 'documentation centres' that helped codify what knowledge about Nubian architecture/archaeology might be archive-worthy, producing index cards dedicated to this purpose in Egypt (concentrating on monuments) and Sudan (centring on archaeological sites). This practice ‐ echoed by other organizations involved in the work ‐ was often purposefully forgetful of contemporary Nubia, whose material traces were also soon to be flooded. Nevertheless, such practices rendered visible other unauthorised histories of Nubia that subverted archival knowledge production: histories of local involvement with the campaign and now-submerged Nubian settlements. This article therefore argues that it is not only possible, but also ethically imperative, to repurpose the Nubian campaign's archives towards the acknowledgement of erased Nubian histories.

Effect of Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Water Footprint of Aswan High Dam Hydropower

The authors have withdrawn this preprint due to author disagreement.

Effect of Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Water Footprint of Aswan High Dam Hydropower

Construction of the Ethiopian Grand Renaissance dam (GRD) has many impacts and implication on the water share and future use in Egypt. Especially the period of the reservoir filling will have a great effect on the Nile River and its water in Egypt. Many of these effects of the GRD on Egypt has been studied before, but no study was done on the effect of its existence on the hydropower water footprint of the High Aswan dam. This research is concerned by simulating the effect of the different GRD reservoir filling scenarios on the water footprint of the hydropower generated from the High Aswan dam. Also, the effect on the hydropower of the Aswan dam itself is also simulated and assessed. Mathematical modeling is used to reach those goals. Three filling scenarios of the GRD were investigated: namely 3 years, 5 years, and 6 years. It was found that as the filling duration of the GRD decreases the negative effect on the hydropower water footprint increases.