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by Marwa Yahya

QENA, Egypt, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- The illegal digging for antiquities across Egypt, especially in the villages of the southern provinces, has more than doubled since the outbreak of the COVID-19 in the North African country, Egyptian officials said, as the crisis of losing jobs amid the pandemic has in large part fostered the myth of easy wealth.

"The Egyptian interior ministry has reported 8,960 cases of illegal digging in several provinces in the south of Egypt from March to the end of November in 2020, against 4,115 in the previous year," Adel Abdel-Azeem, former assistant to the interior minister in the Upper Egypt region, told Xinhua.

"A total of 3,364 illegal cases were reported in August alone," he said.

The secret excavation for antiquities underground at home is spreading in the villages of Upper Egypt, which has led to some important archaeological discoveries by the Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism after the police were tipped off about the illegal digging.

"The police received complaints and tips on a daily basis from ordinary people about their neighbors' digging work in villages on the archeological discovery maps, like the provinces of Qena, Luxor, Sohag and Aswan," Abdel-Azeem said.

The layoffs of employees, especially in the tourism sector, to control the spread of the coronavirus have contributed to this phenomenon that reflects the popular myth of making big money easily, he explained.

Unfortunately, most of such excavations inside the old houses, both deep and ill-considered, result in the collapse of homes, killing and wounding people, according to Abdel-Azeem.

Abdel Hakeem al-Saghir, chairman of Dendera Temple complex in Qena Province, the closure of the archaeological sites during the curfew period encouraged nearby residents to excavate under their houses in the late hours of night.

He also pointed out that 99 percent of the illegal digging activities resulted in no findings but deaths with the collapse of the deep tunnels dug under the houses without any scientific tools.

In August, six people were killed after an 11-meter-deep hole collapsed under their house in a village in Qena.

Al-Saghir said the ministry of antiquities has doubled the number of security men around the temples and museums to arrest the diggers and held sessions in schools and youth centers to raise public awareness about the importance of protecting cultural relics.

Tightening security alone, however, is not enough to tackle the problem, noted Abdel-Azeem, because many Egyptians, influenced by an ultra-conservative religious view that benefiting from the treasures under houses is legitimate, do not see digging as a possible crime.

In 2018, Egypt amended the criminal law to punish those charged with illegal digging, looting, or even posting advertisements on antiquities with three to 25 years in prison and a maximum of 10 million Egyptian pounds (640,000 U.S. dollars) in fines.

"The illegal excavation of antiquities is a crime. So are the sales of the smuggled artifacts in auctions," said Shaaban Abdel-Gawad, head of the ministry's Antiquities Repatriation Department.

Egypt is negotiating with Sudan, Libya and Greece, as well as some Gulf states over bilateral deals to ban the smuggling of Egyptian antiquities, according to Abdel-Gawad.

The Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism has been working on a national project of barcoding and registering all antiquities across the country for the convenience of tracing them with the Interpol, he said. Enditem