STUDY OF DURABILITY OF ALABASTER USED IN THE TEMPLES OF LUXOR AND KARNAK AND LABORATORY EVALUATION OF CONSOLIDATION TREATMENT

Alabaster is an ornamental stone that was widely used in ancient Egypt and it had a lot ofdeterioration factors. The present paper deals with two types of alabaster that located at WadiSannur and Wadi El Assuity, and their durability and geotechnical characteristics. Thesecharacteristics were examined before and after artificial ageing using simple analytical methods.Physical and mechanical properties were carried out on samples from quarries providing eachtype and the same samples were then exposed to artificial ageing with sodium chloride andheat which effectively produced deterioration comparable with that in Luxor and Karnaktemples. The results were tested on different alabaster objects from Luxor and Karnak templeswhere the use of alabaster. The study was also aimed to evaluate the efficiency of the variouscommercial silane-based and acrylic products in laboratory in order to recommend theprotective treatment for the conservative treatment of the alabaster. To fulfill this goal a soakingcharacterization and accelerated ageing tests were performed. Quite satisfying results havebeen observed, except for the original color of the alabaster samples and for particular conditionof application.