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The resulting rise in the water table gradually undermines the foundations of buildings, causing them to list and even collapse. In 1987, according to Luis Monreal, director of the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles, at least one house fell down in old Cairo every day. "The damage is irretrievable," he says.
Many experts believe the ground-water problems have been exacerbated by the Aswan High Dam. Completed in 1970, it stopped the annual flooding of the Nile and made much more land available for agriculture. But the extensive irrigation used to make that land arable, along with poor drainage, has helped cause the rise in the water table's average level.
As the groundwater rises, it dissolves mineral salts from the soil and bedrock. Ancient buildings, many made of porous limestone, act like sponges, sucking this salty water from the ground. When the water evaporates, the salts are left behind; when this happens at the stone's surface, these crystallize into destructive white lesions.
Then there are the tourists. "The pyramids," laments Hawass, "are the only monuments in the world where you can drive up and park your car. Even in Disneyland you have to park a mile away." Last year alone 1,969,493 visitors came to look at -- and touch and breathe on -- Egypt's treasures. Just six people breathing inside a tomb for an hour can raise the humidity by 5 percentage points. And higher humidity provides a hospitable environment for bacteria, algae and fungi that grow on paintings. Sighs Hassan: "Three thousand people a day visit King Tut's tomb. They sweat. I can't prevent that, but it is destroying the tomb."
Egyptians are justly proud of their Pharaonic heritage, and whenever there is a report that monuments are threatened, a public outcry quickly follows. But in a country that cannot provide enough housing or food for its people, preserving and restoring antiquities is far from the top of the domestic political agenda. The budget this year for archaeological preservation is a mere $6 million, virtually all of it from the fees tourists pay to visit the monuments and museums.
Under the circumstances, the Egyptians have done remarkably well. Their largest and most visible project is a $17 million effort to clean up the pyramids' site and restore 15 tombs on the Giza Plateau. Workers have begun clearing away tons of sand and rubbish, thus eliminating one source of wind- borne erosion. They have also begun shoring up about 30 ft. of the crumbling stones at the base of the pyramid of Cheops.
Under new regulations, camel drivers and peddlers, who have hassled tourists since the time of Herodotus, are barred from the grounds around the pyramids. Cars will be banned too, as soon as outlying parking lots are completed. Visitors will ride electric buses to the monuments. The plan also calls for improving sewage drainage for the growing population of squatters living a few hundred yards from the pyramids. All told, the undertaking could take at least five years to complete.
In the meantime, the Egyptians plan to have teams of archaeologists and engineers make annual evaluations of historic sites throughout the country to learn which are most in need of attention. Several have been singled out for the first round of studies. Among them: