Egypt: Grand reopening of 3,000-year-old Avenue of Sphinxes held on 1.7-mile road used as a parade route for gods

A restored road connecting two ancient Egyptian temple complexes in Karnak and Luxor was unveiled in a lavish ceremony on Thursday.

The procession marked the reopening of the 1.7-mile long road with a re-enactment of the ancient Opet festival where statues of Theban deities were paraded annually during the New Kingdom era (c. 1570- c.1069 BCE) in celebration of fertility and the flooding of the Nile.

Chariots and more than 400 performers dressed in costumes paraded along the avenue.

The 3,400-year-old road, linking the ancient centres of Karnak and Luxor, is lined with hundreds of ram and human-headed sphinxes.

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