Egypt completes restoration of Luxor’s Avenue of Sphinxes, turns it into open air museum

Cairo – Egypt will reopen this evening the 3000-year-old Avenue of the Sphinxes 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 reported.

High-profile Egyptian and international figures are expected to attend the televised inauguration.

The Avenue of the Sphinxes stretches 2,700 metres between the Karnak and Luxor Temples with hundreds of sphinx statues on both sides. In recent months, the Egyptian ministry of antiquities has undertaken major restoration 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 reported.

Luxor, previously named by the Pharaohs as Thebes, had once been Egypt’s capital in ancient times. The city has been listed 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.