Egypt: The Sphinx Alley reopened in Luxor

The historic Great Sphinx was inaugurated with a ceremony in Egypt. The former procession route, built about 3,400 years ago, has been extensively restored. Hundreds of historic sculptures now line the road.

A street between the Karnak and Luxor temples in Egypt reopened with a solemn celebration. The restored Sphinx, which dates back about 3,400 years, aims to showcase the country’s archaeological treasures and thus revitalize tourism.

The Sphinx Street, also known as the Road of the Lamb or the Road of the Gods, connects the famous Karnak and Luxor temples in Thebes, the former capital of ancient Egypt. It is believed that pilgrims walked the path to visit temples and worship their deities. The road is lined with statues of rams and sphinxes and stretches for several kilometers in Luxor. With this project, Luxor will become the largest open air museum in the world, according to the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism.

The excavations lasted more than 50 years

The procession route was discovered in 1949. And in the decades that followed, more and more remains were found. Reconstruction began in 2005, but has since been halted due to the political situation and lack of funds.

Mohamed Abdel-Badi, a prominent Egyptian antiquities official, said the oldest antiquities along the street were six buildings built by Queen Hatshepsut, the only pharaoh in Egypt, dating back to 1400 BC. According to the hieroglyphs on the walls of one of the temples, a festival called “Opet” was celebrated there with processions and dancers to celebrate the wealth that the annual flood of the Nile brought to the fields. According to records, a fleet of sacred boats also went to the temple.

The event was the second glam party of its kind this year. In April, the government organized a parade to celebrate the transfer of some of the famous mummies from the Egyptian Museum in central Cairo to the newly constructed museum south of the Egyptian capital.