The Penn State School of Visual Arts will present a free seminar and workshop, The Nile: Center of Ancient and Modern Civilizations: Geologically Very Young, Congo Water Potential to Ensure Egypt’s Sustainability, from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 27, in 121 Borland Building, on the Penn State University Park campus.
Led by Katarin Parizek, assistant professor of art, the seminar will illustrate adverse environmental consequences in the Nile River resulting from large existing land reclamation projects and ongoing needs and options for controlling rising subsurface water levels and accumulation of destructive evaporite salts, and offer potential solutions. The afternoon workshop will attempt to identify viable options and how to implement and move forward with these ideas.
Egypt’s explosive population growth, daily loss of fertile Nile Valley cropland farmed for thousands of years and developing desert reclamation projects are causing adverse environmental consequences that, in time, may prove unsustainable. Bahay Issawi, former head, Egypt Geological Survey and Mining Authority, will share his visionary concept that the Congo River -- considered the second largest in the world -- could be a viable source of water to serve parts of North Africa. Additional speakers include Elizabeth J. Walters, associate professor of art history; Richard R. Parizek, professor of geology and geo-environmental engineering; David P. Gold, emeritus professor of geology; Shelton S. Alexander, emeritus professor of geophysics; and James S. Westerman, owner and principal, Carbit Corporation, Chicago, who discovered caves at Machu Pichu and a statue at Lake Titicaca.
The seminar schedule is as follows:
9 a.m.: Introductory Remarks by Katarin A. Parizek, assistant professor of Art, Penn State School of Visual Arts.
9:05 a.m.: Bahay Issawi will speak on the recognition and evidence for the geologically youthful age of the Nile River (about 0.5 million years). He will trace drainage changes within Egypt through time, including the course of buried abandoned westward-flowing river channels revealed by satellite imagery, and dried up lake beds that contain evidence of riverine fauna and that sustained paleolithic cultures. He will discuss Egypt’s burgeoning population that cannot be sustained without developing new sources of water and introduce his visionary conceptual model of diverting Congo water into desert regions of North Africa.
10 a.m.: Katarin A. Parizek will present photographic illustrations and discussion of the many environmental problems related to the Wadi El-Saya’ada Land Reclamation Project near Edfu, e.g., collapsed and flooded buildings, failed sewers, flooding, salinization of recently and costly reclaimed desert lands, together with previously fertile Nile flood plain farmed for thousands of years. She will outline drainage problems encountered within royal tombs in the Valley of Kings, and evidence of her discovery that ancient tomb builders exploited zones of fracture concentration when selecting their locations. Flooding and seepage water continue to threaten these world-class antiquities.
10:20 a.m.: Elizabeth J. Walters will speak about the problems at the Hierakonpolis Temple-Town Site related to rising surface and subsurface water levels that preclude critical documentation of archaeological sequences and threaten the stability of sun-dried brick foundation of the nearby ancient “fort” and other monuments
10:40 a.m.: David P. Gold will illustrate the magnitude and scale of ancient Egyptian quarry operations and transportation networks used to ship huge blocks of stone. The Aswan unfinished Obelisk Quarry will be his central focus. He will emphasize the importance of the Nile River as the only viable transportation and and trading route to the interior of Africa, and the social link between Upper (Nubia) and Lower Egypt (Delta.
11 a.m.: James S. Westerman will summarize ongoing efforts that have uncovered several fundamental attributes of the Osireion that are difficult to explain and challenge scientific methods of analysis. This completely unique ancient structure built deeply into the water table begs the question: how did the architect/engineer figure out how to build it correctly in the first time?
11:20 a.m.: Shelton S. Alexander will discuss geophysical methods that confirmed the existence of a canal used to transport stone from the Aswan Obelisk Quarry to the Nile. His surveys provided detailed mapping of the water table and are helping to locate dense clusters of shallow artifacts being damaged by salt and subsurface sequence of Nile deposits at the Temple-Town site and foundation of the Osireion.
11:40 a.m.: Richard R. Parizek will provide examples of existing and potential water control measures that could be used to protect unique deposits that reveal that fire was used to extract stone at the Aswan Obelisk Quarry, Ancient Mudbrick “fort,” Hierakonpolis Temple-Town Site, Osireion and other important archaeological sites in Egypt. Sources of water that threaten farmland, structures, and sustainability issues will be discussed.
2:30 p.m.: Workshop: Participants will attempt to identify and summarize the pros and cons of such a visionary project, and identify interested faculty, students and related intellectual resources available at Penn State who may wish to further explore the merits of such a Congo River diversion project.
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