Egypt completes restoration of Luxor’s Avenue of Sphinxes, turns it into open air museum
Egypt completes restoration of Luxor’s Avenue of Sphinxes, turns it into open air museum
This evening Egypt celebrates in an international event the reopening of its 3000-year-old Avenue of the Sphinxes, which is located in the city of Luxor. The site will be turned into an open air museum after being restored in recent months.
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The 3000-year-old Avenue of Sphinxes is located in Thebes, Egypt's ancient capital. [Getty]
Cairo – Egypt will reopen this evening the 3000-year-old located in the southern city of Luxor, turning it into an open air museum.
The reopening of the Avenue of the Sphinxes (aka El-Kebash road) during an international ceremony is part of Egypt’s plan to restore historic sites and promote tourism, local news outlets .
High-profile Egyptian and international figures are expected to attend the televised inauguration.
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The Avenue of the Sphinxes stretches 2,700 metres between the with hundreds of sphinx statues on both sides. In recent months, the Egyptian ministry of antiquities has undertaken major operations of the avenue and the temples of Karnak and Luxor.
The government-linked cultural tourism promotion committee in Luxor anticipates a 38% rise in tourism following the re-opening of the Avenue of the Sphinxes, the English version of privately-owned Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper .
Luxor, previously named by the Pharaohs as Thebes, had once been Egypt’s capital in ancient times. The city has been as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979.
Last year, in an event that attracted international attention, Egypt inaugurated the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation. 22 Pharaonic mummies from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo’s Tahrir square were transferred to the new venue.
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