As part of an independent research project to study the role of women in modern Egyptian society, Jenkins-Sleczkowski discovered that the Americanized view of countries like Egypt is very different from the actual experience inside the country.

Although rural Egypt still show signs of a developing nation and there is poverty and inadequate public services anywhere, Egypt’s densely populated urban centers have become much more modern than most Americans believe.

Expecting to find a country of huts and dirt paths, Jenkins-Sleczkowski found instead a society of modern individuals living in the 21st century, sharing the same lifestyle of packed freeways, fast foods, apartment living, mall shopping and other concepts of modern living associated with American and other world power societies.

“My trip to Egypt showed me that our Western perspectives can be biased and shaped by our own myths about the East. I found that women exist largely as men do in the public sphere, contrary to stereotypes our media would have us believe about the conditions in the country. Our country needs to reconsider its generalizations about former colonized countries. Our biases ignore the degree of modernization that foreign countries, such as Egypt, have achieved.”

The Karnak temple complex forefront has been transformed. Serenity and divinity is overwhelming present, and a visitor can not only admire Egypt’s Pharaonic history but can go even further to watch feluccas sailing on the Nile and can cross the river to see Hatshepsut’s Deir Al-Bahari Temple and the Valleys of the Kings and Queens on the west bank.

At a cost of LE85 million, and following 18 months of studies and field work, all infringements on the archaeological site have been removed, clearing a plot for further excavation to uncover more of the temples’ archaeological story, especially the ancient harbor and canal that once connected the temples to the Nile. According to an old map, ancient Egyptians used this canal to gain access to the west bank at a position corresponding to the Hatshepsut Temple, which was built on the same axis.

In the meantime, bazaars neighboring the temple walls have been removed and the vacated area has been transformed into a commercial zone with a vast parking area along with a visitor center,

“To implement the project perfectly we had not only to confront the neighboring residents and bazaar owners, who refused to be relocated, but also French archaeologists and UNESCO,” said Samir Farag, head of the Luxor City Council (LCC)

The project, its detractors said, would destroy the context of the Karnak Temples. Francesco Bandarin, director of the UNESCO World Heritage Center, wrote to SCA Secretary-General Zahi Hawass threatening to remove Karnak from the World Heritage List should the project go ahead as planned. Hawass said Bandarin had based his conclusions on conjecture and gossip, and he forwarded a detailed report on the planned project. Afterwards the plan was agreed by all the parties concerned.

Parallel with the implementation of the Karnak development project, the SCA carried out comprehensive excavations on the temple forefront. Egyptologists uncovered a Ptolemaic ceremonial bath, a private ramp built for the 25th-Dynasty Pharaoh Taharqa, a large number of bronze coins, an ancient dock and the remains of a wall that once protected the temples of Karnak from the rising Nile flood.

At night, the temples now have a more dramatic aspect with a special cool-lighting system, installed to illuminate their main features.

A major excavation and reconstruction project is being carried to reconstruct the avenue in Luxor and remove any encroachments on the important historical site. As many as 1,200 sphinxes originally faced each other across the avenue, through which official and religious processions passed for centuries. Now a tourist can experience walking from Karnak to Luxor Temple through the avenue of sphinxes, except for a few meters still in progress.

Future plans for Luxor extend beyond the walls of Karnak. An open-air museum is planned. The extended modern section of the Winter Palace Hotel has been demolished to preserve the town’s 19th-century architectural style. The extension will be rebuilt in a similar style to the main building.

The ferry-shaped edifice of the International Rowing Club has been also built on the Luxor Corniche in order to resurrect Luxor’s international rowing competition, which stopped 15 years ago. A state-of-the-art dock for tourist vessels is in operation so boats can moor there instead of docking along the town Nile Corniche and destroying the Nile view from its eastern bank.

On the west bank, a visitor center has been built by the SCA at the foot of the Valley of the Kings, to provide visitors with all the information necessary about the Valley of the Kings and its 27 royal tombs. Maps hang on the walls, and it contains a huge transparent 3D model of the valley and its causeways and corridors. Two plaza screens show a film about the boy king Tutankhamun and the story behind the find.

All the residents of the old Gurna village — built on top of the ancient Tombs of the Nobles — were relocated to the New Gurna at Al-Taref three kilometers from their former homes.  New Gurna has better houses, with the basic necessities of living that were missing from the old village, a youth center, two schools, a hospital, a modern market, a police station and a telephone and post office, a cultural center with a small cinema, a children’s playground and a football field. The streets are wider than in the old village, and the houses are equipped with running water and are connected to the Luxor sewage system.

Excavations that took place underneath the houses of Old Gurna after it was demolished have so far revealed five more nobles’ tombs.

Excerpted from an article by Nevine El-Aref  for Al-Ahram