Ongoing major work in Luxor.

It's a good few years ago now, that I came across a map of the proposed new Nile crossing bridge which had its East Bank origin near the recently completed inner ring road fly-over (over the railway) just north of the town centre. At first, it seemed that the bridge approach was going to actually be at the end of our little alley!!!, But, thankfully, it transpired that it was going to be the next major road to the North. Phew! 

It took a few years for them to finish the flyover. But I've no idea whether spanning the railway, and thus obviating the need to queue at the (un)level crossing at Abu Jude, has taken much traffic out of the town centre and onto the ring road. Nevertheless, there are roadworks there at the moment. As well as bridging the ancient Kebash Road (Avenue of Sphinx) they are also completely re-designing the junction with Sharia Karnak. In order to commemorate the recent support against terrorism by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia, 

(His "Custodian" title refers to the Mosques at Mecca and Medina and has been used since his half-brother, King Fahd who died in 2005, claimed it in 1986), the resulting square is to be named after him.

It was formerly a humble and un-noteworthy, mini-roundabout, but, judging by the extent of the digging and concreting, it is going to be a fairly obvious accolade to the King! Here are a few pics:

    

Travelling a little farther on, along Sharia Karnak (actually to the junction with the Airport Road) we found this:

I took this picture from the "Kabesh Road Viewing Platform" between what was formerly the Airport Road and the Heritage Centre (formerly the Suzanne Mubarak Library). I took another couple of shots from various angles around the diggings:

   Along the 'Avenue', looking back towards Luxor centre, with the viewing platform on the right.

Towards the new park where the Christian Cemetery used to be.

 From the opposite angle, the viewing platform (brickwork) is again visible on the right.

 Straight up the Airport Road.

The last two photo's show the ramps where the tracked excavators have been gaining access to the great big holes where the foundations for the two main towers of the suspension bridge (over the Avenue of Sphinx's) are going to be. Apparently, there are to be three of these suspension bridges; one here, one at the new "King Abdullah Square" and the final one at the big junction near the Emilio Hotel at the bottom of Youseff Hassan Street. Should be fun, eh?

(Sorry about the white background to the text, I've no idea where it came from!!!!!)