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The tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun was reopened to the public on Thursday after more than 10 years of work to preserve the site and repair the damage caused by dust, moisture and tourism.
The tomb contains the pharaoh's mummy in a glbad box, as well as its gilded wood sarcophagus.
"One hundred years of visits after 3000 years of closure … can you imagine the impact on the grave?" Said Neville Agnew, director of the project headed by the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles.
Agnew led a team of 25 people, including archaeologists, architects, engineers, and microbiologists, to preserve the tomb. The paintings on the walls and ceiling resumed their appearance when the British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered and entered the site in 1922.
Damage caused by years of visits
After five years of extensive studies in the grave, experts have discovered environmental impacts and traces of damage caused by tourists, such as graffiti, scratching es and stolen objects.
In addition, the water vapor contained in the breath of the visitors affected all the objects of the tomb. The yellow gold wall paintings had been covered with a layer of dust.
The architects worked on rebuilding the platform accessible by visitors to keep them away from the fragile walls of the site, while the engineers developed a new ventilation system limiting the effects of CO2, heat and cold. moisture and dust.
The wooden floor, lights and ramps inside the grave were all changed, forcing the team to move Tutankhamen's mummy during the process.
The operation to raise the mummy and its envelope of 250 pounds was "terrifying," says Agnew. "Twelve men wearing the mummy are ramping up," I say, "If someone slips, the mom slips and kills someone." They replied, "Do not worry."
The work was conservation and not restoration, some brands of the time can not be erased. Wall paintings that tell the story of Tutankhamun, for example, contain plaques of micro-organisms that have not been eliminated in the past.
"Brown marks are also part of history," said Agnew, adding that his health condition has not worsened since the discovery of the grave.
For the past ten years, the preservation project was delayed by political turmoil in Egypt in 2011, when then President Hosni Mubarak was overthrown by a popular uprising.
For the famous archaeologist and former Minister of Antiquities Zahi Hawbad, who started the work, the project "saved Tutankhamen's tomb". However, Hawbad warned that it would be wise to limit the number of tourists allowed to visit the site.
"If we let mbad tourism enter this tomb, it will not last more than 500 years," he said. Instead, tourists can visit a replica of the nearby built tomb, he suggested.
"We must think about the future in the future In 500 or 1,000 years, if we leave the tourist situation in this way, the tombs of the Valley of Kings will be completely devastated", he declared.
The Valley of the Kings region contains many tombs built for pharaohs and elite members during the New Kingdom era in Egypt and is located on the west bank of the Nile, near Luxor.
Mummy of King Tutankhamun, Pharaoh's boy, exposed in his newly renovated tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor – Photo: REUTERS / Mohamed Abd El Ghany [Photo: REUTERS / Mohamed Abd El Ghany] ] 19659024]
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