Egypt renovates monuments in Luxor to revitalize the city’s charm

Miracle of modern construction

He added that the ongoing renovations of sites in Luxor, including the Karnak Temple Complex, the Luxor Temple and the Avenue of Sphinxes that runs between them, will be celebrated in “another international event”, like when Egypt celebrated in April the relocation of 22 mummies from one museum to another in Cairo in a notable event known as the Golden Parade of the Pharaohs.

Mostafa al-Saghir, director general of Karnak temples, said that the Great Hypostyle Hall with its 134 columns in Karnak is admired and visited by most local and foreign tourists.

“We are currently doing restoration work to show its original colors, which are so beautiful and surprising. “All this is part of the preparation of the Karnak temples and the Luxor Temple for the planned inauguration of the Great Avenue of the Sphinxes,” the official told the Xinhua news agency inside the huge hall.

Saghir added that the Great Hypostyle Hall is “a miracle of construction” in the New Kingdom of ancient Egypt, highlighting that “while the Pyramids of Giza are the miracle of construction of the Old Kingdom, the Great Hypostyle Hall is the miracle of construction of the Kingdom.” New”. .”

Dressed in a white coat like her companions, Israa Hussein, a young woman, stood on one of the scaffoldings while using special tools and brushes to clean part of one of the columns and highlight its original colors.

“We try to revive the spirit of the columns. “It is an honor to work on this project in our city that contains a wealth of world antiquities, and we are happy to highlight something valuable whose details and features used to be obscure,” he told Xinhua.

The restorers working on Luxor’s temples are mostly from the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) and came from different provinces in Upper Egypt, including Luxor and Sohag, according to SCA secretary general Mostafa Waziri.

The Avenue of Sphinxes is 2,700 meters long and connects the temples of Karnak and Luxor, Waziri said, noting that excavation work on the avenue, which began in 2017, led to the discovery of new sphinxes at the site.

The SCA chief said excavations on the avenue will continue even after it opens to visitors in a few months, and described the monument-rich city of Luxor as “an open-air museum.”

The delegation of officials also took a quick look at the Luxor Temple and the adjacent Avenue of Sphinxes before concluding the inspection tour.