|
|
|
In the sight of the co-operation spirit with the egyptian authorities, which marks the Center activity, the italian experts have particularly focused the attention on the solution of the most dangerous problem and decay cause for monuments, which concerns the Egyptian Antiquities Organization: that is the presence of a great quantity of salts in the building materials, linked to its geological origin, and the interaction with the rising dampness by capillarity, which is increasing more and more, because of the current geographical and environmental changes. The phenomenon, which has notably been augmented by the rising, is much worsened in Cairo by the water flowing from the decayed pipes and the old sewer system, and forms the most serious danger for the conservation of egyptian monuments, at present.
The Italian-Egyptian Center has utilized, for the
first time in the country, particular machinery, which were partly
built in Italy and partly in Egypt, which allowed to cut at the
ground-level the huge walls of an important mausoleum placed in the
monumental area, where the Center is placed (the Hasan Sadaqa
Mausoleum). The insulating system, which has consisted in the
insertion, while cutting walls (which were more thick than three ms.
in some points), of a water-proofing layer, has resulted mostly
effective; and the study of this restoration methodology, in view of
a wider and more generalised application, is in course, according
with a research program at the beginning supported by C.N.R.-SMED.
The various and complex problems of technical experiences and of their knowledge, which have been faced by the Italian-Egyptian Restoration Center in the course of its long activity, cover the whole historical period of old Cairo, which is rich of archaeological remains, monuments and buildings, since the foundation of the arab town to the current days. |