LUXOR, Upper Egypt – Streets of the Upper Egyptian governorate of Luxor have been decorated ahead of the anticipated ceremony to revive the ancient Avenue of Sphinxes (Kebash Road) that will be held at 7:30 pm Thursday under the auspices of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi.
Banners are hung along the way from the Luxor airport to the Nile corniche, informing tourists of the international event and the city’s most significant landmarks.
Although the Sphinxes Avenue is yet to be opened, lots of tourists of different nationalities have been keen to come to Luxor to visit it and witness the ceremony.
The event will be covered by several Egyptian and foreign TV channels.
Kebash Road, which is more than 5,000 years old, had been built for the purpose of witnessing the annual celebrations of the Opet Festival, feasts and special occasions, as well as the coronation of kings, with processions that extended from the Karnak Temple to the Luxor Temple.
It hosts statues of rams along its length of 2,700 meters from the Luxor Temple to the Karnak Temple.
In the Pharaonic eras, the number of rams in the two rows was 1,300, but currently there are only about 300 of the original rams. The rest of the rams had been destroyed in the eras that followed the Pharaonic period which spans over 3,000 years, beginning when Pharaonic kings first ruled Egypt. The first dynasty started in 3000BC with the reign of King Narmer.
