RadioGratis
i24NEWS – Reuters
Babylon: an ancient Mesopotamian city on the Euphrates, once in the middle of an expanding empire
Iraqi archaeologists have 7,000-year-old techniques to protect the temple of Ninmakh, the Sumerian mother goddess, and the rest of the ancient city of Babylon from salt that destroys it from within.
Using painstakingly crafted dust bricks, they repair ruins at the UNESCO World Heritage site, which are corroded by saltwater intrusion, a challenge related to prolonged droughts and soil erosion in climate-vulnerable Iraq.
“Salty groundwater is our biggest enemy,” said Ammar al-Taee, an archaeologist with Iraq’s National Council of Antiquities who calls himself “the father of Babylon. “
The ancient Mesopotamian city on the banks of the Euphrates River, once the center of a sprawling empire, famous for its adobe towers and temples. Its hanging gardens, built about 2600 years ago, were one of the seven ancient wonders of the world.
But as salt intrusion, excessive temperatures, flooding and soil erosion, partly linked to climate change, threaten heritage sites in Iraq and around the world.
Low salt dust bricks
Al-Taee and his team learned the procedure of making low-salt dust bricks from a local craftsman who inherited his father’s centuries-old technique, and produced their first batch for maintenance this year.
Experts clean the soil with tolerable levels of salt, which they “wash” to make it even less salty, al-Taee explained.
Then, the powder is combined with sand, gravel, straw and water, shaped into a giant circle and left to ferment for a month, generating a white and crystalline strip. The remaining powder is molded into bricks and placed on woven carpets of cane, giving the blocks a distinct pattern.
After being stacked in the shade of a tree for a few days, the bricks are spread out in the sun to cook for a month before being in usable condition.
X
RadioGratis
Info
Categories
Legal
Follow