THE ADOBE BARREL VAULTED STRUCTURES IN ANCIENT EGYPT: A STUDY OF TWO CASE STUDIES FOR CONSERVATION PURPOSES

Abstract

This research aims at throwing the light on one of the few survived examples of Ancient Egyptian vaulted structures; those are the storerooms of the temples of the Ramesseum and Sety I built in the 13 th century BC. In the first case, only some of the adobe vaults and walls are still standing; whereas in the second case all the vaults collapesed and only the walls exist. Due to lack of maintanence and also scientific research on this topic, the survival remains may be lost forever. The research started with tracking the chronological developmenet, the architecture and the constuction of the adobe barral vault in Ancient Egypt. The two case studies of the research were visually inspected and the existing damage symptoms and causes were reported and investigated. A structural analysis were carried out to understand the structural behavior and the casues of damage. Finally, a number of interventions were proposed that may help the exsiting ruins to survive.