Abu Mena World Heritage Site

Introduction
The World Heritage Site Abu Mena is located in the dessert Maryout about 45km southwest of Alexandria, Egypt. Abu Mena was a town, monastery complex and Christian pilgrimage centre in Late Antique Egypt and was built in remembrance of the martyr Menas of Alexandria, who died in 296 A.D. But due to agricultural development Abu Mena has been facing a dramatic rise of the water table over the past ten years which has put it on the UNESCO danger list.

Paragraph 1:
Abu Mena was initially listed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. For its resemblance of criteria four (iv) on the UNESCO World Heritage Site, which stated it was to be an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape

Abu Mena was a Christian holy city and a significant pilgrimage site in the Middle Ages and today contains the remains of many of the holy buildings that once stood on the site. Abu Mena is a popular tourism site in Egypt with 300,000 domestic and 1,200,000 international visitors each year. Giving the site a total annual revenue of $252,000,000. However with site in danger Abu Mena is likely to have a decrease in its profit from tourism. Abu Mena was listed on the UNESCO World Heritage Sites danger list because of a rise in its water table. This is a huge concern for the site with the local soil being exclusively clay, becoming semi-liquid with excess water. Resulting in it not being able to support the structures that are on the site. With the risk of collapse so high authorities were forced to close some of the structures to the public and fill the bases of some of the most endangered buildings with sand. One of the sites closed to the public including the crypt of Abu Mena with the tomb of the Saint. The site is having an impact on the local community as with the structures starting to collapse there will be less people wanting to visit their city to view the site which means there won’t be as much money coming

The committee have identified vital, short and long term solutions that will help get Abu Mena off the UNESCO danger list. These include short term monitoring, analysis and management of the groundwater as well as some long term changes to exclude the groundwater problems and the development of a master plan for the site. The Ministry of Antiques is also endeavouring to focus on the conservation of all the elements that help make up the outstanding universal value of Abu Mena and to not just focus individual monuments and buildings. Proposing this master plan which they have co-operatively prepared with the Abu Mena Monastery for the restoration and rehabilitation of the