More re Qurna relocation

http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=7166

A lengthy article about the relocation of the inhabitants of Qurna on the West Bank at Luxor, in order to provide access to archaeological sites. It repeats much of what has already been said, emphasising key points with interviews with former inhabitants, but it also raises some new points, including the relocation of residents occupying buildings where the Avenue of Sphinxes used to run betweeen the temples of Karnak and Luxor on the East Bank:

"The current relocation project has implications for much more of the population of Luxor than simply the Gurnawis. Indeed, it is the first phase of a plan to turn the city into what Farag calls 'a living museum.' The next phases of the project are going to take place inside Luxor city limits. In the heyday of ancient Thebes, a road connected the temples of Luxor and Karnak. The road, lined with an estimated 1,200 sphinxes, was of enormous religious significance to the ancients. Over the millennia, as ancient Thebes transformed itself into modern Luxor, the road was swallowed by new residents for whom it held no significance.
Today, numerous roads cross the ancient path and tens of thousands of people live in hundreds of buildings along it. The planned restoration of the three kilometer-long, 80 meter wide 'Sphinx Avenue' will demand the expropriation of more than 100,000 square meters of residential land in Downtown Luxor. The residents of this area have been promised the same deal as the Gurnawis. Their new village has been planned by and is being built by the same people. The fate of the Gurnawis will be theirs."

See the above page for the full story.