Egypt reopens the ancient Avenue of the Sphinxes in Luxor with a spectacular parade after decades of excavations

By Charlene Gubash and Petra Cahill -

While in the United States they enjoyed the Thanksgiving Day parade this Thursday after two years of absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 6,000 miles away Egypt was preparing to revive a cultural tradition with several thousand years of antiquity.

The country will open to the public the Avenue of the Sphinxes, dating back

, in a ceremony in style in the city of Luxor after decades of archaeological excavations.

The ancient walkway, nearly two miles long and about 250 feet wide, was once

and connects the Temple of Luxor with the Temple of Karnak, just north of the River Nile. 

A tourist takes a photo on the Avenue of the Sphinxes in Luxor, Egypt, on May 1, 2015.Mosa'ab Elshamy / AP

It was

until Egyptian archaeologist Zakaria Ghineim discovered the first eight statues of sphinxes in front of the Luxor temple in 1949.

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The effort to excavate and restore the site persisted for the next seven decades, but was interrupted on numerous occasions by the country's political turmoil, such as the outbreak of the 2011 Arab Spring that toppled the autocratic ruler Hosni Mubarak after years at the helm of the country and ushered in several years of civil unrest.

"A dream"

The parade will proceed along the avenue, lined on both sides by more than

ram-headed

and traditional sphinxes with the body of a lion and human heads. 

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi is expected to attend the march, with participants wearing pharaonic costumes, a symphony orchestra, special lighting, dancers, boats on the Nile, horse carts and much more. 

"Tonight I am going to witness one of the biggest events that has ever happened in my life," Ahmed Hammam, a Luxor tour guide, told NBC News.

A stone Sphinx head resembling Pharaoh Nechtanebis, unearthed in Luxor, Egypt, around March 16, 1949.

Hammam, 47, said witnessing the restoration of the Avenue of the Sphinxes after years of effort is "

."  

"Today will be a day that we will talk about for 100 years. I hope that everyone enjoys it. Not only here in my hometown, but throughout Egypt and also in the rest of the world," he said.

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Experts believe the avenue was built to celebrate the annual Opet festival in the ancient city of Thebes, now known as Luxor.

and included a procession carrying a statue of ceremonial gods from the Karnak temple to Luxor. 

"The Opet festival will be celebrated as in the past, in the time of the pharaohs," explained Egyptian archaeologist Ali Abu Dashish.

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Dashish noted that the inauguration celebrations should send a message to the world that Egypt to the world "

."

"I hope it will be a worldwide dazzling party," he said.

"Egypt is safe"

Thursday's festivities are part of an ongoing effort to

as Egypt tries to revive its slumping tourism. 

Part of that effort has included staging spectacular public events like the one taking place on Thursday.

Cairo already organized in April an ostentatious procession, dubbed the Golden Parade, to move 22 ancient Egyptian royal mummies through the streets of the Egyptian capital a new museum. 

Zahi Hawass, an Egyptian archaeologist, called the Luxor site "the largest archaeological site in the world," which tells the history of Egypt from 2,000 BC - known as the 11th Dynasty - to Roman times.

Hawass worked on the restoration of the Avenue of the Sphinxes between 2005 and 2011, when work was halted by riots.

For him, the message the celebration sends is that "Egypt is safe.

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El-Sissi, 63,

in 2013, Mohamed Morsi, and was re-elected for a second four-year term in 2018.

The president has tried to reestablish relations with the United States, a key ally to guarantee its stability, and has tried to ensure that the currencies of foreign tourists - in particular the dollar - re-enter the country, whose economy has been hit by the crisis financial result of the pandemic.

His critics denounce, however, that he

, activists and independent media.

Charlene Gubash reported from Cairo and Petra Cahill from London.