Damage Assessment and Retrofit Study for the Luxor Memnon Colossi

The structural behaviour of large, monolithic, ancient monuments consisting of heavy stone blocks connected one to the other by the gravity load alone, without the use of mortar, is investigated. The Memnon Colossi, which were built fourteen centuries before Christ at Luxor in Egypt, are the case study for this construction technique. This paper summarizes the results of studies carried out on this structure within the CHIME (Conservation of Historical Monuments in the Mediterranean Area) project, funded by the European Commission. The modal frequencies of the two statues were identified experimentally from ambient vibration measurements. Analytical models using the finite element method were also elaborated to compare the numerical results with the experimental ones, and to perform dynamic analyses. The results indicated that the distributed cracks characterizing the current state of the structure, play a significant role in the static and dynamic response of the monument. In view of the monuments’ rehabilitation, an innovative technology, based on fastening the cracked blocks by pre-tensioned wires of shape memory alloy, is proposed and numerically simulated.