Avenue of sphinxes to open in March

Image by zolakoma via Flickr

Minister of State for Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim announced that the Avenue of Sphinxes will be partly opened to public by mid March.

He explained that a 150 meter long section out of the 2,700 meters of the avenue will be ready for the public after restoration, promising to solve all technical and financial problems in order to resume restoration work in the rest of the avenue.

The Avenue of Sphinxes was built during the reign of Pharaoh Nectanebo I of the 30th Dynasty. It replaced another built in the 18th Dynasty by Hatshepsut (1502-1482 BC), as she recorded on the walls of her red chapel in Karnak Temple.

According to this record, Hatshepsut built six chapels dedicated to the god Amun-Re on the route of the avenue during her reign, indicating that  it had long been a place of religious significance.

However, over the span of history the avenue was lost, with some of its sphinxes destroyed and whole stretches buried in sand and build on.

Ahram Online

Related posts:

1. Luxor Avenue of Sphinxes will open in March
2. Luxor Avenue of Sphinxes the way it was
3. New discoveries at Avenue of the Sphinxes in Luxor
4. Four more sphinxes discovered in Luxor
5. Jane Akshar reports on the progress of Sphinx Avenue in Luxor

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 24th, 2011 at 5:09 pm and is filed under Tourism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.