Hebes Temple to stay put

Work had already started on dismantling the Hebes Temple, the oldest monument in the New Valley, with the aim of re-erecting it on another site.

"After four years of feasibility studies in collaboration with German experts, it was decided that the work should stop and the temple should be left where it is," SCA chief Dr Zahi Hawass said.

"Urgent steps are being taken to protect the structure from rising underground water," Hawass said.

Hawass mentioned that he had met with the Governor of New Valley to look into ways of exploiting the area's tourist potential.

Teams of archaeologists from France and Canada are working with Egyptian experts on other sites in the governorate in the search for relics of the Pharaonic, Graeco-Roman and Islamic ages, he added.