Tuesday 03/June/2025 – 03:50 PM
The Archaeological Temple in Qena Governorate, in Upper Egypt, was subjected to an interruption of electricity for a while, which sparked widespread controversy through social media platforms, as well as a state of resentment between visiting tourists and tourist guides, especially during the summer peak period.
The tourists had expressed their dissatisfaction with the stopping of the electrical current, stressing that this affected their experience on the archaeological site, where the work of lighting and air conditioning stops, which causes the disruption of some tourism activities, in addition to damaging the image of the important archaeological teacher.
Electricity source: The ministry takes the necessary measures to ensure the current continued for archaeological areas
In this context, an official source at the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy confirmed that the ministry takes all necessary measures to ensure the continued feeding of vital installations with electricity, such as government hospitals, water stations, sewage stations, museums and archaeological areas.
The source said in statements to Cairo 24, commenting on the incident of the power outage of the Dandara Temple in Qena, that such archaeological sites usually feed from two independent electrical sources to ensure the continuation of the service and avoid any interruption that may hinder the workflow or negatively affect the services provided to citizens.
The source pointed out that in emergency situations, cars equipped with emergency generators are sent to vital sites, in order to ensure the continuity of electrical nutrition temporarily, if necessary, saying: We focus mainly on government hospitals, where additional systems are provided to permanently secure electricity, due to the importance of providing health care around the clock.
The source added that the archaeological areas, such as museums and historical sites, have special considerations, whether in terms of security or to protect antiquities, as these sites are intensively secured to ensure that they are not exposed to any risks, especially in cases of power outages, as the air conditioning is an essential part of preserving mummies and technical works, and in the event of maintenance work, it is exchanged to alternative electricity sources to avoid any power outages.
With regard to the cases of sudden power outages without coordination, the source explained that those responsible for the interruption are immediately referred to urgent investigations by legal affairs to discuss the causes of the accident, with penalties imposed on the negligent to ensure that the accident is not repeated again.
Referral of officials of the local unit in Dandara for investigation after the electricity was cut off from the archaeological temple
The competent government agencies decided to refer a number of officials in the local unit of the village of Dandara, Qena Governorate, to the investigation, against the backdrop of power outages from the archaeological temple of Dandara for several hours a while ago without prior coordination with the authorities concerned with maintenance work in the temple.
Governmental guidance for all ministries, the necessity of coordination when conducting maintenance work to manage backup sources
Government authorities issued an official directive to all ministers of the necessity of fully coordination between the relevant authorities and agencies when implementing any maintenance or development work related to biomedes; This is in order to ensure the continued provision of services and not to disable them to citizens or vital bodies, especially archaeological sites, hospitals and public facilities, to manage backup sources.
