Karnak had changed hugely since my previous visit in 2000. A considerable paved forecourt has been opened up in front of the temple, clearing a vista down to the Nile so on a clear day it’s now possible to see Queen Hatshpsut’s necropolis on the opposite west bank.
Previously, bazaars, garages, a football pitch and the old houses of the French archaeological delegation that first excavated Karnak, crowded the temple.
‘I feel proud to be director of Karnak now,’ says Soliman. ‘It used to be blighted by buses parking right in front of the entry pylon and the activities nearby were ugly and damaging.’
He goes on to say that clearing the forecourt also revealed new finds: a Roman bath and a 200-metre stretch of flood-wall built by the ancient Egyptians to protect Karnak from the Nile.
A similar clearance has been undertaken around Luxor Temple: another open plaza enlarged; replacing a garden from which irrigation was thought to be undermining the ruins. Road widening schemes to ease traffic congestion allow visitors arriving at Luxor train station to enjoy a direct view down the station boulevard to Luxor Temple upon arrival. New gardens have been created along Luxor’s Nile Corniche including the Suzanne Mubarak International Garden. When the eponymous Egyptian first lady visited recently to open a new public library, which hosts over 10,000 volumes on Egyptology, she observed that she’d seldom seen more beautiful streets in Egypt.
Luxor’s armada of floating gin palaces are also about to sail off into the sunset. The city’s Corniche would be a magical place to stroll and ingest melting sunsets if it wasn’t blighted by moored cruise-ships habitually ruining the view. Berthed for over a kilometre (stern to bow) and usually three or four abreast, they disgorge both pollution into the Nile and groups of hapless tourists into the predatory hands of silver-tongued tour-operators and felucca (sailboat) captains. But now Luxor’s Nile waterfront is to be reclaimed, as a massive new purpose-built dock is planned for the big ships 20 kilometres away.
I meet Governor Samir Farag, the man widely credited with driving through the city’s renewal, at Luxor City Council’s HQ. ‘On my first day in this job I met President Mubarak. He told me I had three years to come up with a plan to revive Luxor,’ he says.
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