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Egyptian authorities should take urgent steps to prevent further salt damage
to ancient paintings in the tombs of the Pharaohs, say geologists. Raphael
Wüst of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and Christian
Schlüchter of the University of Bern in Switzerland studied the salt
content of the rock that was excavated to form most of the royal tombs in the
Valley of the Kings. They found that these rock formations have high levels of
salts, and are also highly porous. Changes in humidity due to tourists and flash
floods encourage the salts to crystallise on the tomb surfaces, destroying wall
paintings and ornaments, they say.