Nevine El-Aref reviews plans to develop the Corniche at Luxor Luxor, the City of Palaces, counts among the world's greatest open-air museum. If offers awe-inspiring monuments alongside more homely pleasures, riding a horse-drawn caleche along the Corniche, sailing a felucca across the Nile and even taking to the air in a hot-air balloon. Haphazard development, though, has unfortunately compromised some of Luxor's charms. In response, Luxor City Council launched a comprehensive development plan three years ago, one of the aims of which is to pedestrianise the Corniche. The 10-month Corniche Development Project has been designed by Ain Shams University's Faculty of Engineering and is being implemented by the army. It is budgeted at LE250 million, LE150 million provided by the Tourism Development Fund and the remaining LE100 million in the form of a European grant. Samir Farag, head of Luxor City Council, explains that the project will be executed in three stages. The first, already completed, aimed at sprucing up the city's backstreets, enlarging and re- paving them and installing new lighting in order to facilitate the flow of traffic from the Corniche. The latter, says Farag, is to be left for pedestrians "to enjoy walking peacefully within the gates of Egypt's ancient history and enjoy looking at the vast Nile". Temples on the East Bank, he told Al-Ahram Weekly, will eventually front directly on the river, as the ancient Egyptians intended. The second phase, due to start in January, will divide the Corniche into three lanes, two reserved for emergency services and the third for horse drawn carriages. In places the Corniche will be widened to 14 metres, and several luxurious, and very expensive, 100-bed hotels are planned. Floating wooden sidewalks will be provided so pedestrians might feel they are walking on the deck of a boat. The façades of buildings overlooking the Corniche will, says Farag, be made of sandstone and lit in a manner that makes them appear old. Both Luxor and Karnak temples will in the future be accessed direct from the Nile, and docks will be constructed to allow tourists to disembark. The plan is eventually to restrict transit between the monuments on both banks of the river to feluccas. On the West Bank a dock is already under construction. When complete, says Farag, it will be able to handle 10,000 a day. Bus and car parks are also being built, alongside places for camels and horses to be tethered, and bicycles chained. The plans, however, have met with criticism from some quarters, with complaints that they may further compromise the atmosphere of the city which they purport to protect. Farag has no truck with the critics, pointing out that the plans have been approved by UNESCO and that a delegate from the organisation is due in Luxor next month to assess the most recent additions to the project.
