Seismic hazard assessment for some selected historical pharaonic temples’ sites, south of Egypt

Abstract Egypt is fortunate to be less prone to natural disasters compared to other parts of the world. However, the seismic activity is low to moderate. Therefore, this relative stability is a positive factor for preserving the archeological sites. This cultural heritage is a major source of national income. Consequently, there is a strong interest from the state to preserve these sites from any probable natural hazards, especially the earthquakes. In the current study, the seismic hazard assessment has been conducted for south of Egypt, in particular at eight pharaonic temples’ sites, utilizing the probabilistic seismic hazard approach within a logic-tree framework. Peak ground acceleration (PGA) and spectral acceleration (SA) values on rock site conditions have been estimated according to NEHRP site classification. The obtained seismic hazard maps show that Kalabsha, Abu Dabbab and Gulf of Suez seismic zones control the distribution of the ground-motion parameters. In addition, the uniform hazard spectra have been estimated to display that, the temple of Abu Simble is located away from Kalabsha seismic active zone, where the expected PGA and SA values at different return periods is relatively low in comparison with the other temples. Moreover, the ground-motion levels are also deaggregated at the temples' sites and the results indicate that, the distance to the seismic sources which mostly contributes to the seismic hazard is almost controlled by the nearby seismic sources. Therefore, the obtained results could serve as starting point to evaluate and mitigate the seismic risk at those precious historic sites.