The Grand Avenue of Sphinxes is reopened

For centuries it was the focus of ritual celebrations to mark the annual flooding of the Nile before it was covered in the sprawl of Luxor.

The Grand Avenue of the Sphinxes, a 3000-year-old parade that stretches for almost 4km, was reopened yesterday with a grand procession to rival those witnessed by the pharaohs.

Dancers, musicians and costumed actors enlivened the festivities to inaugurate one of the largest open-air archaeological sites, which connected the ancient temples of Karnak and Luxor.

The avenue created by Queen Hatshepsut, who reigned from 1479 to 1458BC, was developed over 1000 years, flanked by up to 1200 sphinxes, many with the heads of rams on sandstone bases.

It was rediscovered in the 1940s, buried under the streets of Luxor, formerly known as the ancient royal capital of Thebes. The site has been excavated and restored over the past decades.

The recreation of the ceremonial route, once named the Path of God, has involved the demolition of hundreds of homes, several mosques, a 19th-century palace and a church.

The ostentation of the ceremony reflected how much President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi is banking on the Grand Avenue and other tourist attractions to revive Egypt’s economy after the pandemic.

Actors dressed as ancient priests carried wooden models of the Theban trinity deities Amun, Mut and their son Khonsu in sacred boats. To coincide with the parade, the statue of Hatshepsut, the second female pharaoh, surrounding temples and the Colossi of Memnon were illuminated.