SCA Begins Renovating Ram-Headed Sphinxes in Luxor

The Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) began renovating the collection of ram-headed sphinxes.

The ram-headed sphinxes are located at the first courtyard behind Amun-Ra Temple’s first pylon at Karnak Temple in Luxor.

Renovations started after four ram-headed sphinxes from the collection were transported to Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo to decorate it.

Dr. Mustafa Waziri, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said that the project consists of 29 statues of rams, located inside the temple behind the first pylon.

He explained that those statues were in a poor state of conservation due to the wrong renovation work done in the early seventies when creating the Sound and Light show at Karnak Temple.

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During the renovations, the rams were carried on a layer of modern rubble covered with mortar of cement, red bricks, and small pieces of stones, which affected it and allowed groundwater to leak between its lower part and base, as well as turned some of its parts into sand powder.

Waziri pointed out that the restoration project places these statues separately on high adjacent stone bases.

Also, the floor of these bases will be treated, protected from groundwater, and restored to its original condition.

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The journey of four ram-headed sphinxes 

On May 2, the Ministry of Antiquities experts started the installation of the four rams next to the obelisk of King Ramses II on Tahrir Square downtown Cairo. The rams were restored and installed on the square.

Waziri explained that two rams of the four were installed on their bases.

The two other rams will be installed in designated places, next to the obelisk of King Ramses II, which was also restored and established on the square during the past months.

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All the four rams will be encased in wooden boxes until the opening of the development project of Tahrir Square.

The installation was funded by the Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities, in coordination with the Cairo Governorate, and the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities within the framework of the state’s plan to highlight Egypt’s unique civilization to the world.

This plan comes amid other parts of a scenario and new designs to beautify the square and show it in the most magnificent way. It aims to make the square a new sight among the archaeological and tourist attractions in Cairo.

The transfer of the four rams was carried out by the Arab Contractors Company under the supervision of the technicians, archaeological and restoration experts of the Supreme Council of Antiquities and its Secretary-General.

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In February, Cairo Governorate, in cooperation with the Ministry of Antiquities, succeeded in completing 90% of Tahrir square renovation works.

The Egyptian government plans to turn the 150-year-old square into an open-air museum.

The government’s strategy aims at beautifying the famous site, which has witnessed many historical and political events in the country’s modern era, through changing the appearance of the main buildings and embellishing it with a host of archaeological items, under the supervision of the project’s general engineering consultant Waleed Mansour.

The square renovations include the roundabout at the square center, known as “Al-Sanya” in Arabic, where a pharaonic obelisk is installed, in addition to four ram-headed sphinxes, surrounded by a circular fountain.

The 17-meter-tall, 90-ton Ramses II era obelisk, was found in the form of eight large blocks at San El-Hagar archaeological site in the city of Zagazig.

The four sphinxes were transferred from Luxor’s Karnak Temple.

The square will also be decorated with many pharaonic-era plants such as date trees, olive trees, fig-trees, and carob trees, in addition to papyrus, for which the ancient Egyptian civilization was famous.

Nearly more than fifty engineers and a thousand workers worked around the clock in a bid to finish the renovation of the famous landmark.