Avenue of the Sphinxes and Luxor Town Mound
Era
New Kingdom to the Modern Era
Location
Luxor
Project Dates
2008, 2010
The Avenue of the Sphinxes and the Luxor Town Mound
Luxor, capital of Egypt during much of the Middle and New Kingdoms, was a major religious center. AERA was called to Luxor twice to excavate and rescue archaeological remains in two areas that were soon to undergo development.
In 2008 we worked along the Avenue of the Sphinxes running between Luxor and Karnak Temples. In 2010 we returned to excavate the last remains of the Old Luxor town mound, which included settlement deposits spanning 2,000 years. Both projects were run as field schools to train inspectors in the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in the methods of salvage archaeology. Find out more about our Field Schools.
Avenue of the Sphinxes and Luxor Town Mound Photogallery
Our two field school excavation sites in Luxor were at the Avenue of the Sphinxes. (2008) and the Luxor Town Mound (2010).
The 2008 Salvage Archaeology Field School excavations near Luxor Temple. Here we unearthed part of the Avenue of the Sphinxes, a 2.7 km street lined with sandstone sphinxes stretching between Luxor and Karnak Temples.
The Luxor Town Mound was nearly two stories high and containted nearly 2000 years of stuctures built one on top of another, dating from the early 20th century back to the Roman period. Our 2010 Salvage Archaeology Field School staff and students worked to excavate and document the site before it was demolished.
The Luxor Town Mound shown here nearly down to ground level with a Roman period building exposed.
The Luxor Field School ceramics course gave students the chance to work on pottery from the Roman through modern periods from the Old Luxor Town Mound. Here they are shown sorting ceramic finds in Karnak, between the Khonsu Temple pylon (left) and the Ptolemy III Gate (right).
Some of our advanced Luxor Field School student learned how to draw archaeological illustrations. Here a 20th century grain measure from the Andreus Pasha Palace is being documented.
Selected Bibliography
2021. Sadarangani, Freya, James S. Taylor, with Ashraf Abd El-Aziz, Mansour Boraik, Rabee Eissa, Ahmed M. El-Laithy, Hanan M. M. Mahmoud, and Essam M. Shihab. “Excavations in the Khalid Ibn El-Waleed Garden, Luxor: Avenue of the Sphinxes.” Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte vol 88, pages 81–144.
2011. “The Luxor Field School 2011.” AERAGRAM vol 12 no 1, pages 6–8.
2010. “Called Back to Luxor: The Salvage Archaeology Field School-2.” AERAGRAM vol 11 no 1, pages 2–6.
2010. “2000 Years of Archaeology Begin to Fill a Void.” AERAGRAM vol 11 no 1, page 7.
2008. “AERA in Luxor: The Salvage Archaeology Field School.” AERA Annual Report 2007–2008, pages 5–7.
2008. “Real World Rescue Dig: AERA Fields the SAFS in Luxor.” AERAGRAM vol 9 no 1, pages 10–14.
2008. “Digging Old Luxor.” AERAGRAM vol 9 no 1, pages 15–18.