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As a diplomatic dispute rages between Egypt and the auction house Christie's in London over a sculpture depicting the head of the pharaoh Tutankhamun, set to be auctioned on July 4, a Live Science investigation reveals several clues as to where this sculpture comes from. The sculpture, being auctioned off by an anonymous owner through Christie's, is made of quartzite (a type of stone). Estimates for how much the sculpture will fetch vary around $5.1 million (4 million pounds). However, Egypt believes that it was looted from the Karnak temple sometime after 1970, and the country's embassy in the U.K....

The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced Sept. 22 that the joint Egyptian-German archaeological mission working on the Temple of Esna in Luxor governorate (south Egypt) has restored several inscriptions, drawings and colors in the temple’s ceiling...The Temple of Esna, near the west bank of the Nile River in the city of Esna in southern Egypt, was begun during the reign of Roman Emperor Claudius in the first century AD and finished in the era of Emperor Decius between 249-251. It was dedicated to the ancient deity Khnum, who is usually depicted with the head of a ram...The colors...

Egypt unveiled a sacred road lined with thousands of statues on Thursday, which was used as a procession route for the gods 3,000 years ago. Called the Avenue of Sphinxes, this 1.7-mile stretch features more than 1,050 statues of sphinxes and rams that has been reconstructed with the hopes of attracting tourists from around the world. The ancient walkway, also known as the Way of the Rams and the Path of the Gods, connects the famous Karnak and Luxor temples in what was the city of Thebes, which used to be Egypt's capital in antiquity. ...The glitzy ceremony began at...

San Francisco's Mayor London Breed is setting up her city's social workers for potential bloodshed, offering a series of "reforms" that even her former police commissioner calls "pure political pandering." San Francisco police will no longer be called to settle disputes between neighbors, or to handle homeless people, or any non-criminal cases, according to a new plan announced by Mayor London Breed.

Work on the Al-Kabbash Road project, linking the temple complexes of Luxor and Karnak – which date back to around 1400 BCE, when Luxor was known as the ancient city of Thebes – is due to be finished later this year. However, the discovery of the statue has brought a temporary stop as the statue cannot currently be moved. Not very much is known about it yet, and photos are limited. According to the Director General of Antiquities at Luxor, Dr Mohamed Abdel Aziz, speaking to news site Youm, the workers found a statue of a “lion’s body with a human head”,...

The assault — a suicide explosion and fierce exchange of gunfire — left as many as three attackers dead and at least five other people injured, Egyptian officials and media reports said. It came a week after unidentified gunmen killed two tourist police in a drive-by shooting near the Pyramids of Giza outside Cairo. ... Three attackers armed with bombs and weapons tried to cross the security cordon at Karnak Temple, but were faced by security forces who foiled their attempt,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement. It also confirmed the deaths of three attackers. There was no indication...

Police in Egypt say they have foiled an attempted suicide bomb attack at the Temple of Karnak in Luxor, one of the country's most popular tourist sites. Three men reportedly approached a barrier at the entrance to the temple complex on Wednesday morning. When confronted by police, one of the attackers detonated an explosive belt he was wearing. A second was shot dead and a third severely wounded. Two civilians and two policemen were injured but no tourists were hurt.

A 3,500-year-old inscription on a stone block found in Egypt is what archaeologists say the oldest weather report of the world. The inscription on a six-foot-tall calcite stone, called the Tempest Stela, describes rain, darkness and "the sky being in storm without cessation, louder than the cries of the masses," according to Nadine Moeller and Robert Ritner at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute who have translated the 40-line inscription. The stela's text also describes bodies floating down the Nile like "skiffs of papyrus." "This was clearly a major storm, and different from the kinds of heavy rains that Egypt...

An inscribed stele erected at Thebes by Ahmose, the first Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty, documents a destructive storm accompanied by flooding during his reign. Fragments of the stele were found in the 3rd Pylon of the temple of Karnak at Thebes between 1947 and 1951 by the French Mission. A restoration of the stele and translation of the text was published by Claude Vandersleyen (1967). In the following year (1968), Vandersleyen added two more fragments, one from the top of the inscription and a small piece from line 10 of the restored text, which had been recovered by Egyptian...

How Pharaoh sailed to Karnak New discoveries at Karnak Temple in Luxor have changed the landscape and the history of this great religious complex, writes Nevine El-Aref Clockwise from top: Ptolemaic bath with 16 seats; a stelae bearing the name of the 25th-Dynasty King Taharqa; the obelisk of Tuthmoses I at the eight pylons; restoration work at the Chapel of Osiris Neb-Ankh History has a special scent and taste at Karnak Temple. The emotions it evokes are powerful and timeless. Inside the lofty pylons is amassed an unsurpassed assembly of soaring obelisks, awe-inspiring chapels and hushed sanctuaries reflecting the spectacular...

A Karnak discovery shows how ancient builders shielded temples from Nile water By Ahmed Maged First Published: April 22, 2007Courtesy of the Supreme Council of Antiquities New Karnak discovery sheds light on how the ancients protected their temples from water LUXOR: Remains of an ancient Egyptian wall used to prevent the leakage of the Nile flood waters from spreading over the Karnak temple in Luxor were discovered on Thursday at the temple’s eastern side, culture minister Farouk Hosni announced on Sunday. Hosni revealed that the wall was accidentally found by Egyptian excavators during an archeological inspection of the site undertaken...

Ancient Egyptian carving sheds light on Karnak temple Sun Dec 17, 5:11 PM ET CAIRO (AFP) - Egypt announced the discovery of a carving dating back to the 12th century BC which could hold the key to valuable information on Karnak temple, the largest ancient religious site in the world. The large quartzite stone, carved with 17 lines of hieroglyphics, highlights the achievements of high priest Bak En Khonso and his contributions to the grand hall at Karnak. The 170 cm by 80 cm carving (5.5 by 2.5 feet), unearthed by a team of archeologists in the southern Nile city...

Karnak the Magnificent: Help! I need a good Karnak Pic ... Pretty simple, folks. I need a GOOD Karnak the Magnificent Photo for a Photoshop Parody pic I have in mind, but all of them I find via Google are junk. I'm very surprised I can't find one. If you have a good one or a link to some good Karnak pics, can you please post the pic or link to me here ? MANY thanks in advance for your help ! MeekOneGOP