Durability Issue for the Emperor Fasiladas Royal Palace in Gondar (Ethiopia)

Abstract

The Royal Enclosure is the remains of a fortress-city in Gondar, Ethiopia. It was founded in the 17th century by Emperor Fasiladas and was the home of Ethiopia's emperors. Its unique architecture shows diverse influences including Nubian styles. The site was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. Ghebbi is an Amharic word for a compound or enclosure. Due to climate conditions and human activities, the Royal palace is affected by severe structural damage. Presently almost some portion of the palace are under maintenance by mortar pointing to avoid negative effects of rainfall and other durability issue and temporary scaffolding to prevent from collapse of vulnerable structures. An analysis of damage of the palace is presented, based on weathering processes and structural conditions, as preliminary tool to detect and implement urgent and medium/long-term protection strategies for the conservation of the monuments. The chapter describes the major durability issue of the historical palace and determines the cause of the present durability problem and then recommends the possible remedial measure to alleviate the prolonged durability issue. The analysis was conducted by visual inspection and X-ray diffraction characterization methods. The chapter discusses the results obtained from the analysis of the mortar sample of the historical palace.