Is Karnak temple on fire?!

As some social media pages reported misleading information that a big fire started in Karnak temple and even posted photos of a fire somewhere. 

Brigadier-General, Mohamed Omar,        director of Civil Protection department (Fire Fighters) told Luxor Times that earlier tonight a fire started of the electricity's converter box by the Nile probably because of a short circuit. It is located opposite of Karnak temple by the Nile so it is about 200 meters away from the temple entrance and across the street." Omar said.

He added that it took only one fire engine to put it off and Luxor fire fighters put it off in a record timing.

Bottom line is: Karnak temples complex is safe and didn't catch fire. 

Osiris statues unearthed in Karnak temple

The French mission working in Karnak temples has unearthed 3 statues and a broken statue base as well as a container holds blue glue which is probably dated to the Late Period (664 BC:332 BC).

The Statues were discovered in Karnak temple, two bronze statues of Osiris. One statue measures 36cm height and 7cm width and shows Osiris sitting while wearing the white crown. 

The other statue measure 15cm height and 3cm width and represents Osiris while standing. 

The third statue is probably made of Schist and shows a goddess sitting and wearing the double crown with a wig underneath. It measures 16cm height and 7.5cm width and bears hieroglyphics inscriptions which are being cleaned to be able to define the name of the goddess. 

#Egypt #Luxor #Osiris #Ushabti #History #AncientEgypt #Discovery

Exclusive footage: Sphinx Avenue ongoing work and issues

The videos below were recorded on the 10th,16th and 21st of September showing the ongoing work on the Sphinx Avenue.

Installing the lighting system on the morning of 23rd of March 2012

This first videos shows two people carrying a water pipe that was broken during the digging work. 
(10th September 2013)

An argument over the broken water pipe as it worth according to the one who didn't get it between 100 to 150 Egyptian Pounds. (10th September 2013)

Children playing and hanging of a cable over the working area of the Sphinx Avenue while other at a further end were dumping rubbish down there.(16th September 2013)

The videos below were recorded on the 21st of September 2013.

How was it like a week before this work start? Check our exclusive footage for a walk down the Sphinx Avenue all the way from Karnak to Luxor temple (Here)

Exclusive footage: A walk down the Avenue of Sphinx, all the way!

First of all, we would like to thank you for all of your past support. You may have noticed that the Luxor Times profile on Facebook has gone through some changes in the last few days and we would like to explain what's going on. Facebook converted our profile into a page, causing every post to be (temporarily!) lost. We are now working to retrieve our old content and once again make it accessible to you, all while keeping everything as chronologically correct as possible. Because of this, you are going to see some old stories pop up in your feed once again.

Once this process is over, we will go right back to keeping you informed about what’s happening through up to date information, as well as exclusive photographs and videos.

So we would like to apologise for not publishing a couple of reports as we got the material and we will start with this exclusive footage of the Sphinx Avenue march from Karnak to Luxor temple

On September 3rd, this series of videos were recorded to cover the whole avenue walking south from Karnak Temple to Luxor temple.

This was all recorded in the same sequence below and the only seconds not shown are the few seconds it took to get to the main road again and to the other section of the Sphinx Avenue.

Five days later, there was ongoing work which we will publish more footage showing it tomorrow.

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New date for opening ceremony of the Sphinx Avenue. Will it happen this time?

For nearly 4 years few dates were set for the opening ceremonies of the Avenue of Sphinx. This time the Minister of Antiquities says the opening will be in the middle of December 2013 and it will be attended by the head of the World Tourism Organisation. Is it really going to be finished and open to public then? Will the Minister himself still be in office by December?
Time will tell and when it happens of course we will be there.

For more details and exclusive footage of the Sphinx Avenue including the only photos during the trials of the lighting system in one section, check the links below.

Sphinx Avenue story Part 1

Sphinx Avenue story Part 2

Sphinx Avenue story Part 3    The Avenue lit up for the first time

Netery-Menu has been reconstructed at Karnak, open to public by the End of February

“Restoration of Queen Hatshpsut’s Netery Menu (translated as the Divine Monument)and reconstruction in the open Air museum in Karnak has finished in order to open it for public by the end of February.”  Dr.Mohamed Ibrahim, Minister State of Antiquities, announced today.

Dr. Ibrahim explained that the blocks were first discovered by G. Legrain at the beginning of the 20th century in the Cachette Courtyard at Karnak, and then by Sheata Adam and Farid El-Shaboury in the mid-1950’s, alongside a large number of statues of High Officials,Kings and Gods.

The blocks from the chapel were stored at Karnak warehouse until two years ago when the Centre franco-égyptien d’étude des temples de Karnak (CFEETK) started restoration project. (Published by Luc Gabolde in 2005)

 Hatshepsut and Princess Neferura

In 2008, the French-Egyptian Scientific Committee agreed the reconstruction of this building at the entrance to the Open Air Museum. After excavation, the reconstruction of the Netery-menu started in 2009 as a main programme of the French-Egyptian Centre for the Study of Karnak Temples (MSA-CNRS).

 Cartouches of queen Hatchepsut

The project has finished the end of last month (January 2013) and will be open to the public by the end of February 2013. The monument of a great importance for ancient Egyptian history as it shows the power of Queen Hatshepsut before ascent to the throne of Egypt. 

Princess Neferura

Mr. Mansour Boraik said “The monument is 5.39 meters high of limestone. It was dedicated to Amon Re and it gives a clear idea of art in the 19^th Dynasty as the depictions shows scenes of Queen Hatshepsut and her husband King Thotmose II next to the name of Thotmose III who reigned after Hatshepsut.

Below a part of the Activity report which was published in 2011 on the project

French Egyptian Center for the Study of the Temples of Karnak (Activity Report 2010)

- M. BROZE, R. PREYS, « La porte ptolémaïque du IIe pylône », apud M. Boraik, Chr. Thiers, French-Egyptian Center for the Study of the Temples of Karnak. Activity Report 2010, Cfeetk, Luxor, 2011, pp. 36-37 (http://www.cfeetk.cnrs.fr/)

Reconstruction in the Open Air Museum of a building in limestone of Tuthmosis II, Hatshepsut and Tuthmosis III: the Netery-Menou

Following completion of the iron framework end of 2009, the pouring of a concrete slab foundation of the building was completed in January 2010 (total volume: 50 m3). We then started the installation of a pavement that will cover the entire foundation. The latter was also sealed with a layer of tar, thus preventing any capillary moisture in the future. A projection a few inches cut in the pavement marks the location of the walls. This projection has also enabled a precise definition of the final floor level. The flooring consists of large slabs of sandstone (2m x 1.5m x 0.11m approx), carved by the ancient method that uses each tile to its maximum size, creating a paving with irregular shapes called opus incertum.

Numerous blocks of this building had been cut into several large fragments in antiquity to be reused. Other blocks, due to the nature of the material, were also disconnected. It was therefore necessary to gather all the fragmented blocks for assembly. This structural consolidation work, consisting of drillings, resin injections, installation of dowels and restitution of some laying faces, is generally completed. Over thirty blocks have been cleared.

The reassembly of the walls began in September. Two of them are already completed and two others are still being assembled. Four other walls will be rebuilt when the second part of the paving will be done, after the complete reassembly of the first four walls. The incomplete parts of the building are rendered by traditional masonry made of red bricks and lime mortar.

Wall 8, with at least one block per seat, has determined accurately the original height of the building: 5.39 m.

Parallel to the reconstruction, a study of technical characteristics is underway on all the blocks of the Netery-Menu (sheets allow a systematic survey of all elements related to technical implementation of the stone).