THE DETERIORATION PROPLEMS OF THE WALL RELIEFS OF KOMIR TEMPLE, ESNA, EGYPT

Abstract

The supreme council of antiquities in co-operation with the French mission discovered the Ptolemaic temple of Komir in 1979 in Esna, Upper Egypt. The Ptolemaic temple of Komir was built of regional sandstone and preciously decorated with reliefs and inscriptions. Investigation of the condition of the sites, together with physical, chemical, and mechanical tests of their material revealed that, it is collapsed and only partly preserved and it disposes of some still buried rooms. The Komir temple is exposed to different deteriorations processes caused by internal and external stresses due to the mineral composition of the building materials, climate factors, salts crystallization and groundwater. In this study, the deterioration problems of the wall reliefs were investigated for the aim of its conservation. For this purpose, the building was documented by drawings and photographs. The chemical, physical and structural characterization were performed by means of X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) and observation of thin section by transmitted light optical microscopy (LOM), polarized microscope, Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) attached with EDX and thermogravimetric (DTA &TGA). The physical and mechanical properties were done. The results showed that, sandstone is mainly composed of quartz, albite, orthoclase, microcline and dolomite. The density and porosity values of deteriorated sandstone are 1.52 g/cm3 and 25%. Results also showed that the deterioration of stone materials is due to the aggressive action of the environmental agents. Soluble salts, such as chlorides and sulphates were found in efflorescence samples. These results and information allowed the identification of the types of salts and deterioration features may be used in the future for conservation purposes.