ABSTRACT
Cultural heritage sites are now the focal points for the rapidly growing number of cultural tourists but this comes at a cost and the cost is the preservation and wellbeing of the sites themselves. In Egypt these issues are particularly pressing; the tombs of the Pharaohs served a specific religious function and were never intended to receive visitors of any kind. The climate in Egypt, hundreds of years of neglect, and more recently the work of the Supreme Council of Antiquities are the main reasons these tombs still exist. Since the first rush of tourists in the early nineteenth century the tombs have suffered layer upon layer of damage.
