BIA

MARS 2015
scenes depicting their owners with the god
Amun, and during hunting and cultivation
activities. Other scenes show the tombs’ owners
and their wives in front of an offering table.
Dimanche 22 mars 2015
The first tomb belongs to a guard of the
temples of the god Amun named Amenhotep
Rabiu and his wife Satamen. The second
belongs to a noble called Samut and his wife
Takhaeet.
“The incredibly beautiful works displayed in
the tombs demonstrate once again the majesty
of the ancient Egyptians and their unequalled
skill in creating gorgeous murals depicting
scenes from Egyptian life,” said Minister of
Antiquities Mamdûh al-Damâtî.
Sultân ‘Îd, director of Upper Egyptian
Antiquities at the ministry, said that the tombs
were looted in antiquity, as their funerary
collections and sarcophagi are missing. Some
parts of the decoration and hieroglyphic texts
were also erased, as well as the name of the
god Amun, indicating that the tombs could
have been damaged during the religious
revolution led by the monotheistic king
Akhenaten, who united all the ancient Egyptian
gods into a single god, known as Aten.
Amenhotep’s tomb is T-shaped with two
large halls and an unfinished small niche at
the rear of the tomb. An entrance leading to a
side room with a shaft in the middle is at the
tomb’s southern side. “A shaft of this type
could lead to the burial chamber,” al-Damâtî
said.
The second tomb is composed of a
rectangular hall with a shaft, now filled with
sand, in the middle. Two doors opening to the
first tomb were also found. Both tombs will
now be restored. (Nevine El-Aref, “Luxor tombs
found”, Al-Ahram Weekly, March 19, 2015. Voir
également Dînâ ‘Abd al-‘Alîm, « Le ministre de
l’Archéologie annonce la découverte d’une
nouvelle tombe à Louqsor », al-Yawm al-Sâbi‘,
10 mars).
- -
After five years of restoration the first and
fifth Sphinxes Avenues, which once connected
both Karnak and Luxor temples in ancient
times, are to be opened tomorrow night for the
first time. Minister of Antiquities Mamdûh al-
Damâtî is to cut the ribbon to open a new
tourist destination in the town. He told Ahram
Online that the restoration of the Sphinx
Avenue and installing new lightening and
security systems in Luxor temple came within
the framework of the ministry’s efforts to
protect the country’s ancient shrine.
al-Damâtî explained that the development of
Luxor’s temple lighting and security systems is
a part of a Spanish grant of 150 million euros
used for the implementation of a scheme to
protect every archaeological site in Theban so
they can be visited at night and be wellprotected.
He went on to say that the new
lighting system is made according to the latest
technology, which guarantees the preservation
of the temple walls and engravings.
For his part Major General Muhammad al-
Shaykha, head of the Projects Department at
the ministry of antiquities, said that the security
system installed in the temple includes of an
electronic curtain stretched around the temple,
along with monitoring cameras connected to a
TV circuit. He told Ahram Online that the
restoration of the first and fifth sections of the
Sphinxes Avenue represents 37 per cent of the
whole path. It was carried out in collaboration
with the National Service Projects with a budget
of LE66.5 million.
He went on to say that the restoration work
of the first section, which stretches from the
Luxor temple to 350 metres long, includes the
removal of all encroachment as well as the
consolidation of the avenue’s eastern wall and
BIA LI — Janvier/Juin 2015 65