Temples were saved from dam 50 years ago, but work not done

摘要

Egyptologists and other experts gathered in Italy this week to celebrate a successful campaign to save ancientEgyptian temples from being submerged by a dam project 50 years ago and heard of cultural sites facing similarthreats now.The international campaign that saved the temples of Abu Simbel during construction of the Aswan High Damwas remembered in Turin, Italy, as an unprecedented engineering achievement and a turning point that made thepreservation of cultural treasures a responsibility that cut across borders.But experts at the Monday event said that with major dam projects underway in Sudan and Ethiopia, the job ofprotecting Nubian culture is not finished.The director of Turin's Egyptian Museum, Christian Greco, noted that the focus in a modernizing Egypt half acentury ago was on saving major monuments, largely due to time pressure.