egypt on thursday opened to the public a 3000yearold sphinxfilled avenue in the southern city of luxor to great fanfare having wrapped up restoration works that took over seven decades to complete in an attempt to wow tourists and lure them back after egypts vital tourism industry took a fresh battering because of the covid19 pandemic the country held a lavish ceremony to celebrate the opening of the avenue of sphinx an ancient 17milelong walkway connecting karnak temple with luxor temple its the second such event in six months following a royal procession that egypt had held in april to parade 22 mummies through the streets of cairo as they were conveyed to a newly inaugurated museum with president abdelfattah elsisi and his wife in attendance officials said the event intended to showcase luxor a monumentrich city that once served as egypts capital then called thebes as the biggest open museum in the world avenue of sphinxes in front of the 1st pylon in karnak egypt 1900 universal images group via getty images the first trace of the avenue of sphinxes was found in 1949 when egyptian archeologist mohammed zakaria ghoneim discovered eight statues near the luxor temple further statues flanking the road were uncovered in subsequent decades with excavation works interrupted for long intervals as egypt fought several wars the path originally had 1057 statues a third of which already had been unearthed with the rest still pedestals said antiquities minister khaled elanani more egyptian mummies pass through cairo in parade worthy of royals we are not done yet we are still working to uncover more rams he added the statues are divided into three shapes the first being a body of a lion with a rams head that was erected over a nearly 1000foot area between the karnak temple and the precinct of mut during the reign of new kingdom ruler tutankhamen famously known as king tut avenue of sphinxes and the temple of amun entrance luxor ancient thebes egypt de agostini via getty images the second shape is a full ram statue built in a remote area during the reign of the 18th dynastys amenhotep iii before being later moved to the temple of khonsu in the karnak complex the third and most populous shape is one of a sphinx a lions body and a humans head with the statues stretching over a mile from the precinct of mut to the luxor temple they were erected during the tenure of 30th dynasty ruler nectanebo i 380362 bc opet festival the highlight of thursdays ceremony was a modern reenactment of the ancient opet festival which dates back 3400 years the festival primarily involved a procession in which shrines of the triad of deities supreme god amunre his consort mut and their son khonsu were paraded by priests on wooden barques from karnak to luxor in a symbolic recreation of their marriage the 27day feast also marked the nile rivers annual flooding the parade would set