The road has hundreds of sheep-headed sphinxes dating back more than 3,000 years.
Luxor, Egypt:
Egypt on Thursday inaugurated a road with hundreds of ram-headed sphinxes dating back more than 3,000 years, in a grand nighttime ceremony at the archeologically rich Temple of Karnak in Luxor.
Dubbed the “Rams Road,” the sandstone road connecting the two temples of Karnak and Luxor in the city center south of the Nile has been approved by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and a host of high-ranking officials. opened in a grand ceremony all night long. .
The road is nearly three kilometers (two miles) long and was named “The Way of God” in ancient Egyptian mythology.
To the sides are statues that were buried for centuries under the desert sands before they were resurrected and restored for display by the country’s Egyptologists in recent years.
The ram is an incarnation of the ancient Egyptian god Amun.
Karnak Temple was built about 2,000 to 4,000 years ago to worship Amun-Ra, an ancient Sun god. It covers an area of more than 100 hectares (250 acres).
The Luxor Temple was built about 3,400 years ago by Amenhotep III and has been used as a continuous site of religious worship from the ancient Egyptians to the Coptic Christians and later the Muslims.
Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism has announced it will make the Arab world’s most populous country a destination of praise for tourists by enhancing its reputation as “an open-air museum”.
The tourism industry in Egypt employs two million people and generates more than 10% of the country’s gross domestic product.
But it has suffered in recent years due to political turmoil following the 2011 revolution, multiple terrorist attacks and more recently the coronavirus pandemic.
In April, a procession of floats carrying the mummies of 22 pharaohs through the streets of Cairo in a parade complete with 21 cannons celebrates the newly opened National Museum of Egyptian Civilization.
In the coming months, the country will inaugurate another new gallery, the Grand Egyptian Museum, near the pyramids of Giza in Cairo.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
