Egypt's antiquities minister, Luxor governor inspect Valley of Kings

Minister of Antiquities Mamdouh Damati, Minister of Tourism Hesham Zaazou and Luxor Governor Mohammad Badr on Tuesday inspected the Valley of the Kings area at western bank of the Nile.

The two ministers will later hold a joint press conference at the city hall to announce the start of the Festival of Opet that will be celebrated for the first time in Luxor Temple in the monument-rich city as part of the tourism season activities.

Centered in Thebes, a name of ancient Upper Egypt, this boisterous festival, known as the Beautiful Feast of the Opet, held in the second civil month and set according to a lunar calendar. It was perhaps not as old a celebration as some of the other pharaoh feasts, though during the New Kingdom particularly, the celebration of Opet was predominate. Its duration of twenty-seven days in the 20th Dynasty shows how significant the celebration became. However, virtually nothing is known about the celebration prior to the 18th Dynasty and the rise of Thebes.

Theban citizens and their guests from afar celebrated the fruitful link between their pharaoh and the almighty god, Amun, who in the New Kingdom became a state god. During the celebration it was thought that the might and power of Amun were ritually bequeathed to his living son, the king. Therefore, the celebration belonged to the official royal ideology of the state and, not surprisingly, witnessed the personal involvement of the pharaoh.

Because of the flooding, work was temporarily suspended in fields. The people joined in a dramatic procession honoring Amun that began at the Temple of Amun in Karnak and ended at Luxor Temple one and a half miles away at the south end of the city.