Degradation of Engraved Stone and Renders from Qasr Qarun Temple in Fayoum Oasis, Egypt

Abstract eng:
Qaser Qarun temple is located in the western edge of Qarun Lake in El Fayoum Governorate. It is about 40 km from the capital El Fayoum and 120 km South east of Cairo, Egypt. It is dedicated to god Sobek and it was erected during the Ptolemaic Period (304 30 BCE). The palace is surrounded by some remains that are a Roman bath, two temples, several fresco-decorated houses and a fortress. Qaser Qarun temple was built from early Eocene limestone which is coming from Qarun Quarry. Joint mortars strengthen the masonry and renders cover also the inner face of the walls that can be engraved. These renders and mortars were made of lime and contain also gypsum and quartz. Both the stones and renders suffer a lot of degradation patterns (scaling, powdering etc.). Hygroscopic salts and swelling clay minerals are responsible for theses degradations that induce to a weakening of the strength resistance of the materials. The present work aims to evaluate the respective contributions of these factors in the degradation process by the way of microscopic observations in order to characterize the degradation patterns and to determine the causes of the main degradation, A mineralogical characterization of samples has been performed according to the powder method using X-Ray diffractometer (XRD) and specific treatments dedicated to the characterization of their clayish content. Last, the paper proposes a new conservation approach taking into account the causes of the implemented degradation processes.

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