Challenge of the Sphinxes
Monday, February 25, 2008Planning and landscape architecture students from Clemson are helping preserve humanity's distant past in Luxor, Egypt. 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. During the spring 2007 semester, the first steps of this project were taken by Clemson students as those enrolled in the landscape architecture urban design studio began work with students at Ain Shams in parallel studio courses. The Clemson students visited Egypt in February 2007 to see Luxor first-hand and engaged in an urban analysis of the city. They also met their collaborators at Ain Shams University. Upon their return, students in the studio course worked to provide a variety of urban design solutions for key areas of the city. In particular, these students worked on landscape designs that complement the architectural plans of the Ain Shams studio; their work primarily addressed the temple and avenue areas but also included landscape development plans for the west bank of the Nile, including the Valley of the Dead. For the full-text article in Clemson World, visit www.clemson.edu/clemson-world/2008/winter/article5.html. For more information about Clemson's graduate programs in these fields, visit the appropriate websites below:
*City and Regional Planning - www.grad.clemson.edu/programs/CRP/index.php
*Environmental Design and Planning - www.grad.clemson.edu/programs/EDP/index.php
*Landscape Architecture - www.grad.clemson.edu/programs/LandArch/index.php
