Four more sphinxes discovered in Luxor
Four statues of sphinxes, over 2300 years old, have been found on the eastern bank of the River Nile in Luxor, Upper Egypt, and probably fifteen more of its kind are awaiting discovery.
According to a communique from the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), the four sandstone statues were found in excavations carried out between the town of Khaled Ibn Al Walid and the Temple of Luxor. These excavations are aimed at discovering the so-called ”Road’ of the Sphinx”, which in ancient times joined the Temple of Karnak to the Temple of Luxor.
The now headless statues are set in blocks of sandstone, which were extracted from the mountains of Selsela in northern neighbouring city of Aswan, about 800 kilometres south of Cairo, according to the secretary general of the CSA, Zahi Hawass. The figures contain several titles of the King Nekhtnebef who founded the 30th Dynasty (380-363 BC), added the source. Archaeologists expect to find the missing heads of the sphinxes before the excavation project is finished.
Several buildings from the Ptolemaic period (332 BC-30 AD) were also found, along with a stone that contains the name of Cleopatra VII.
The EHCA is currently coordinating with the Higher Council of Luxor as part of a 100,000 Egyptian pound (18,800 dollars) project to reclaim all areas between the Luxor and Karnak temples and to rescue the antiquities that surround the avenue of Sphinxes.
The area had previously been covered by modern buildings. Twenty Sphinx statues were discovered at the site in 2007.
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