Antiquities Min. Opens Abbott Temple in Luxor

Ali Abu Dashish

During the World Heritage Day celebration, Antiquities Minister Dr. Khaled El-Anany, Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, Tourism Minister, and MP Osama Haikal headed for Karnak Temple to open the restored temple of Abbot.

Dr. Mustafa Waziri, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, a delegation of 21 ambassadors from the world and the artist Yousra also attended the event.

Dr. El-Anany expressed his happiness with the presence of all spectrum of the state in the World Heritage Day, which is organized by the Ministries of Antiquities and Tourism on April 18 and 19.

Dr. Mustafa Madbouli, Prime Minister, attended the activities yesterday, and announced the recent archaeological discovery in the West Bank of Luxor. He also attended the celebration of collecting and reconstructing the third and last statue, in addition to his tour in the western bank of Luxor.

The celebration was also attended by ministers from the Ministry of Archaeology, Culture, Tourism, Health, Population, Local Development, as well as Luxor Governorates, and the Information, Culture and Antiquities committee. This shows the cooperation between them to build modern Egypt.

The Minister of Antiquities said that the committee will resume its work this evening to inspect the museums in Luxor. He added that they will go tomorrow to the West Bank to evaluate and tackle some challenges.

Dr. Mashat pointed out that despite the decline of cultural tourism all over the world, the current archaeological discoveries and the organization of archaeological exhibitions abroad show how Egypt's civilization and culture are still dazzling the world. She added that the Egyptian monuments are not limited to the pyramids only, but there are great monuments in many tourist provinces, such as Minya and Luxor.

The minister confirmed that the beauty of the discovered cemeteries reflect the genius of the ancient Egyptian man.

She stressed that all these archaeological discoveries open the world's appetite for the cultural tourism, especially with the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum in 2020.

The minister added that everyone she met inside or outside Egypt has a passion and a great obsession with the opening of the Grand Egyptian museum, which is Egypt's gift to the world. It combines greatness and originality with modernity.

MP Osama Haikal explained that the joint organization between the Ministries of Antiquities and Tourism to celebrate the World Heritage Day is unprecedented cooperation, which benefits the entire system.

Haikal added that the Committee was keen to follow up and monitor the obstacles facing the shrines, saying that the committee spares no effort to preserve and protect these cultural treasure. He indicated that the Committee held lengthy meetings during the tour in the province.

Dr. Waziri said that the restoration work in the temple began in mid-August 2018. It included cleaning the walls, fastening the colors of the drawings on the walls, removing the soot in the hall of columns and the Holy of Holies, making new floors, restoring missing stone parts and blocks and covering cracks.

The Abbott Temple is located on the southern axis of the Amon-Re Temple in Karnak and west of the Khonsu Temple.

Mustafa al-Saghir, director general of the Karnak monuments, said that according to the medical beliefs associated with the goddess Abbott, the place where the temple is located is the place where the goddess Abbott rested before she gave birth to her son Osiris.

As for the goddess Abbott, she is a good hippopotamus. According to the texts of the pyramids, the king suck from her breast so he did not felt thirst or hunger forever.