Tourism: Egypt Reopens Road Connecting Two Ancient Temples

A restored road connecting two ancient Egyptian temple complexes in Karnak and Luxor has been unveiled in a lavish ceremony aimed at raising the profile of one of Egypt’s top tourist spots.

The procession to reopen the 1.7 mile road included a re-enactment of the ancient Opet festival, where statues of Theban deities were paraded annually during the New Kingdom era in celebration of fertility and the flooding of the Nile.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi marched along the road at the start of the ceremony.

Pharaonic chariots and more than 400 young performers dressed in pharaonic costumes paraded along the avenue.

The 3,400-year-old road linking the ancient centres of Karnak and Luxor, also known as Road of the Rams or the Avenue of the Sphinxes, is lined with hundreds of ram- and human-headed sphinxes, though over the years many have been eroded or destroyed.

The road has undergone several restoration efforts since being discovered in 1949, and the latest began in 2017.

Reuters/Hauwa Abu