TITLE:
Tracing of the Avenue of the Ram-Headed Sphinxes Remains Using Geophysical Investigations, Luxor, Egypt
AUTHORS:
Alhussein A. Basheer, Abdelnasser M. Abdel-motaal, Ahmed El-Kotb, Ayman I. Taha, Mohammed A. Abdalla
KEYWORDS:
The Avenue of the Ram-Headed Sphinxes Remains, Near-Surface Magnetic Profiling, Shallow Seismic Refraction Investigation, Luxor, Egypt
JOURNAL NAME:
International Journal of Geosciences,
Vol.5 No.8,
July
30,
2014
ABSTRACT: Throughout
3000 years ago, over the New Kingdom in the Pharaonic period, the Ram-headed Sphinxes
Avenue connected Karnak and the Temples of Luxor, a processional avenue was
lined on both sides by 1200 statues of sphinxes. The lining of the avenue was
erased. Centuries over centuries this avenue has been buried with its statues
under about 2 m of silt and sand, and urban development covered it with
housing, asphaltic streets, and other structures, obscuring its route and
interrupting this dramatic connection. This paper focuses on the discovery of
some of these Sphinx statuses and remains at a suggested part of the avenue
using both near-surface magnetic and shallow seismic refraction methods. A
gradiometer survey was conducted in an area that amounted 576 m2 as
(48 m× 12 m) to measure the vertical magnetic gradient
with a high resolution instrument with 0.25 m sampling interval. A superior
detection was accomplished by using the analytic signal and Euler deconvolution
techniques. The shallow seismic refraction survey was done in the same area to
illustrate the lithology of layers material with 1 m interval; both P and S
waves were measured to calculate the geotechnical properties of the area to
sustain the sketch of structures’ boundaries. We have lucratively detected six
main structures; they can be the pedestal of these Ram-headed Sphinx statues. Mining
a small part of the study area has proven the reliability of, both the magnetic
and shallow seismic refraction discoveries, and the shallowness and composition
of the detected features.