Winter 2008 — Vol. 61, No. 1

Clemson students are helping preserve humanity’s distant past in Luxor, Egypt.

The ancient temple complex in Luxor, Egypt, was begun some 3,600 years ago. It has been expanded countless times in the ensuing millennia by such titanic figures as Ramses II, Tutankhamen and Alexander the Great. Now the names of Clemson students in planning and landscape architecture will be added to that ancient roster.

Luxor’s blessing and curse

Along the banks of Egypt’s Nile River, standing watch over the long passage of time, are some of the world’s most treasured antiquities. To the west lie the vast burial tombs built for the pharaohs and their families in the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens. To the east rise the colossal temples of Luxor and Karnak, connected to each other by a long, ceremonial avenue lined with hundreds of guardian ram-headed sphinxes.

Together, these temples and their connecting avenue comprise the world’s largest and perhaps most ancient open-air religious and ceremonial site — as well as Egypt’s greatest tourist destination. Thousands of people pour into Luxor each year to see for themselves the towering pylons, decorative art and ruined temples.

For the surrounding city of Luxor, tourism has proven to be both a blessing and a curse. While providing livelihood for most of the city’s residents, it has also contributed greatly to the unplanned urban sprawl now threatening the integrity of the temples and avenue. Communities have sprung up ad hoc, mosques and churches have been built, gardens planted, roads paved. Indeed, most of the two-mile-long Avenue of Sphinxes is now completely buried under layers of urban fabric.

Amazing invitation

As part of an ambitious push to restore and rejuvenate the two temple complexes, as well as the Avenue of Sphinxes and the surrounding city of Luxor, government officials in 2006 invited American students from Clemson University to join Egyptian students from Ain Shams University in Cairo to collaborate on a master plan for the city of Luxor.

The idea for this collaboration had begun almost a year earlier. Hala Nassar, Clemson professor of landscape architecture, first learned about the Luxor project during a trip to Egypt to visit her family and former colleagues at Ain Shams.

“Ain Shams has a strong program in architecture, but none in landscape architecture,” says Nassar. “Clemson, however, does have a very strong program in landscape architecture.” That seed of an idea grew into cross-disciplinary discussions among faculty, administrators and government officials on both continents and came to fruition with the governor’s invitation.

Nassar found strong support at Clemson including President Jim Barker and Provost Dori Helms. Jan Murdoch, vice-provost and dean of undergraduate studies, assisted the department financially in establishing the Creative Inquiry studio. Two additional sources of funding — from the Clemson Advancement Foundation for Design + Building and the Graduate School, through the office of Dean Bruce Rafert — made it possible for Clemson students to travel to Egypt twice.

Magnitude of the challenge

Nassar and fellow professor Robert Hewitt and their counterparts at Ain Shams organized the joint project around the idea of “parallel studios” — Egyptian students in architecture and Clemson students in planning and landscape architecture — working together over the course of a year to develop the plan.

There was much to be considered — not just how to uncover and restore the Avenue of Sphinxes, but how urban growth could be planned and managed in a way that was sustainable and respectful of the culture and heritage of the region. Landscape architecture is integral to the success of the overall design. It helps not only to beautify, but also to define and protect the site — revealing, concealing, enhancing, maintaining.

“Our design project focused on the area of the Avenue of Sphinxes that historically connected Karnak and Luxor temples into one great religious complex,” says Nassar. “The site is phenomenal — a masterpiece of human genius and of outstanding universal value.”

Clemson students first traveled to Luxor with Nassar and Hewitt in February 2007 for preliminary fieldwork and consultation with their Egyptian counterparts. They spoke with local residents and officials, shot photos, and studied maps and historical documents. More importantly, they experienced firsthand the magnitude of the challenge and opportunity before them.

In May, the Egyptian students visited Clemson for joint presentations of the studio work. Anyone who witnessed the reunion in Lee Hall of the American and Egyptian students was struck by their joy at meeting face-to-face again. Perhaps it was the scope of the shared work or a new understanding of each other’s cultures.

Hewitt says, “I’ve never seen anything quite like the respectful relationship that evolved between these two groups of students as they worked together, visited each other’s countries, got to know each other.”

In the intervening months between visits, ideas and critique were shared “virtually,” through email attachments and Web site postings.

Place at the world table

In July, representatives from both studios presented their joint recommendations and master plan to the governor of Luxor. The plan includes not only the massive restoration of the avenue, but new approaches to both temples, cleared vistas and a re-imagining of the Nile waterfront.

Clemson University and Ain Shams University students will participate in another studio together in the spring semester that will address part of the 2050 master plan of Cairo. The project will focus on the design of the area of the Great Pyramids of Giza and New Grand Egyptian Museum and its surroundings.

“Our strategy for international study has evolved,” says Dan Nadenicek, planning and landscape architecture professor and department chair. “It has gone from the traditional semester-abroad option to an approach that would allow us to engage in projects anywhere in the world.”

The Luxor project was also important in that it was a true interdisciplinary studio engaging undergraduate and graduate students in landscape architecture with graduate students in the master of city and regional planning program. Students had to research historical, social and political influences before suggesting design strategies.

The participation of Clemson students has drawn attention in Egyptian daily newspapers. Their work has been reviewed by the governor of Luxor and will be presented to Egypt’s Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif by faculty members of Ain Shams University.

Because Luxor was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979, plans to restore and renovate the area will be closely scrutinized by that body as well as by the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt and other interested parties around the world.

“It’s very exciting to think that some of this work will be implemented in the years to come,” says Nassar, “but it’s also very important to remember that it was a tremendous honor to be invited to participate in the plan itself.”

To learn more about the Luxor project, contact Hala Nassar at hnassar@clemson.edu or (864) 656-2499, or Rob Hewitt at hewitt@clemson.edu or (864) 656-6698.