Then we tested a new lighting system, which, upon completion, will stretch six kilometres from the Valley of the Kings to Deir el-Bahri. Seeing the mountain of Deir el-Bahri lit up after sunset is a unique and impressive experience. This project cost us 52 million EGP and was carried out by a French company; it will allow visitors to see many of the monuments of the west bank in the evening -  the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens, the mortuary temples, and Deir el-Bahri.

In the Valley of the Kings, the Assasif area, and Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, we have been rebuilding enclosure walls to protect the archaeological sites. These walls will be about 1m high. They will blend in with the surroundings and will protect the sites from various threats. At Malkata for example, the agricultural land is spreading everywhere over the ancient area. It is important to protect these sites, and so I am happy to say that we have already started the construction of these walls.

Recently, in the Valley of the Kings, we worked with a German company to conserve the tomb of Horemheb. This was a very successful project, and so we are now planning to conserve the sixteen tombs that are currently open in the valley in the same manner. We will also start a study of the tomb of Tutankhamun and a site management project at the Valley of the Queens.

Another important future event will be the opening of Howard Carter’s rest-house after the completion of its restoration and transformation into a museum. Two rooms will contain displays about the discoveries of Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon; one room will contain items that Carter left at the house in 1922; and one room will be a bedroom that will be rented out ten times a year to lucky couples. There will also be a kitchen and a photography lab. Next to this we will have a cafeteria for people to eat lunch, and visitors will be able to enter the rest-house for free. We are planning the grand opening on November 4^th to which every scholar who has ever excavated in the valley will be invited, first to give a twenty minute lecture at the Mummification Museum in the morning, and then to attend the celebration in the afternoon. This will mark the completion of phase one of our project there; phase two will involve the construction of a visitor’s centre next to the rest-house. Here people will learn about the Valley of the Kings; no one will enter any site in this area without first passing through this visitor’s centre. To the north we will build an area for bazaars. The final phase will be the construction of replicas of the tombs of Tutankhamun, Seti I and Nefertari, as this is the only way to ensure that these tombs will be preserved for eternity.

Finally, in the evening, we opened the 13^th Century mosque of Abu al-Haggag, which is built on top of one part of the Temple of Luxor. It is dedicated to a religious man called Sheikh Yusuf al-Haggag, and every year there is his Moulid celebration – the celebration of a holy person’s birthday - which is very similar to the ancient Egyptian Opet Festival. I opened this restored mosque with Amir Farag, Head of Luxor, and everyone was happy that we had made these restorations, which had taken us two years to complete.