Nature of Biodeterioration of Limestones in Some Monuments, Cairo, Egypt: a Study
in Environmental GeoEgyptology
Mervat S. Hassan, Mohamed Abd ElHadi1
and Mokhtar Ammar2
Central Metallurgical Res. & Develap. Institute, HelwanI; Fac. Antiquities,
Cairo, Univ.; 2Bot and Micrabiol. Dept., Fac. Sci., ElAzhar Univ., Cairo, Egypt |
Biodeterioration is one of the least studied factors affecting our ancient heritage. The
present study is an attempt to outline the role of microorganisms in the deterioration of
ancient buildings and monuments made of Middle-Eocene nummulitic limestone and hard lower
Upper Eocene marly limestone in addition to marble.
Characterization and petrographic studies of limestone samples extracted from Babyloun
Citadel, and marble naturally coated with green fungi extracted from ElMensterily Palace,
Cairo, Egypt, were carried out using XRD, IR, XRF, microscopic and SEM study. Zapeck-Dox's
medium was used for the purpose of growth and purification of fungi's species collected
from TARY Tomb (TRT).
Structurally, defect of calcite mineral due to growth of fungi on the studied samples
could be detected using XRD, IR and SEM. The results obtained reveal that the dissolution
of Ca carbonate by organic humic and fulvic acids produced by the fungi species, led to
structure defect (planar structure) which conspicuously resembles layers of microvoids,
perhaps due to the loss of CO2 associated with incipient decomposition. |
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