Luxor is set to become one of the world’s largest open-air museums when a multimillion-dollar project to restore the “Sphinx Alley” completes next March. The project to restore the three-kilometre alley that links the grand temples of Luxor and Karnak on the east bank of the River Nile in Luxor has cost USD45 million. The Sphinx Alley was built by Amenhotep III in the 12th century BC, originally with two opposite rows of 600 statues each—one row of ram-headed sphinxes and the other with regular sphinxes with human heads. Over the years, the alley was buried under sand.
Tougher for smugglers Parliament amended Egypt’s antiquities law last Monday to bring in stiffer punishments for the theft and smuggling of relics while granting patent rights to the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). The amendment requires Egyptians who have antiquities to report their possessions to the SCA in six months. The sale of antiquities is still banned. ”Parliament banned trade in antiquities but allowed their possession provided they are not damaged, neglected or used for profit,” SCA secretary-general Zahi Hawwass said. These relics, he said, can in future only be given as gifts with the council’s authorisation. They may also be passed on as part of an inheritance. The antiquities legal counsel, Ashraf al-Ashmawi, who helped in the drafting of the amendments, said the law precluded antiques and heirlooms. He said the new law raised prison sentences for smuggling artefacts out of Egypt to 15 years and a one-million-pound fine. The penalty for stealing artifacts has been doubled to 10 years in prison, and that for tampering with antiquity sites to five. A new provision gives patent rights to the SCA on precise replicas of antiquities that are certified by the council. The amendments were passed after a stormy debate in parliament after steel magnate Ahmed Ezz proposed a bill that would have allowed the sale of artifacts inside Egypt, following the examples of Italy and France. Culture Minister Farouk Hosni and Hawwass both threatened to resign if parliament accepted the proposal. King Tut’s DNA Egypt will soon reveal the results of DNA tests made on the world’s most famous ancient king, the young Pharaoh Tutankhamun, to answer lingering mysteries over his lineage, the SCA said. Hawwass said he would announce the results of the DNA tests and the CAT scans on 17 February. The results will be compared to those made of King Amenhotep III, who may have been Tutankamun’s grandfather. The effort is part of a wider programme to check the DNA of hundreds of mummies to determine their identities and family relations.
The identity of Tutankamun’s parents is not firmly known. Many experts believe he is the son of Akhenaten, the 18th Dynasty pharaoh who tried to introduce monotheism to ancient Egypt almost 3,500 years ago, and one of Akhenaten’s queens, Kiya. But others have suggested he was the son of a lesser known pharaoh who followed Akhenaten. Tutankhamun was one of the last kings of Egypt’s 18th Dynasty and ruled during a crucial, turmoil-filled period when Akhenaten’s monotheism was ended and powers were returned to the priests of the widespread cult of Amun.