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Gold Compartment at Luxor’s Habu Temple Regains Luster

A wall adorned with reliefs at the Mortuary Temple of the 20th dynasty pharaoh Ramesses III (1186-1155 BC) at Medinet Habu, near Egypt's southern city of Luxor. AFP
A wall adorned with reliefs at the Mortuary Temple of the 20th dynasty pharaoh Ramesses III (1186-1155 BC) at Medinet Habu, near Egypt's southern city of Luxor. AFP
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Gold Compartment at Luxor’s Habu Temple Regains Luster

A wall adorned with reliefs at the Mortuary Temple of the 20th dynasty pharaoh Ramesses III (1186-1155 BC) at Medinet Habu, near Egypt's southern city of Luxor. AFP
A wall adorned with reliefs at the Mortuary Temple of the 20th dynasty pharaoh Ramesses III (1186-1155 BC) at Medinet Habu, near Egypt's southern city of Luxor. AFP

Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities completed the restoration of the gold compartment at Habu Temple on the western bank of Luxor Governorate.

“The restoration work was carried out by Egyptian restorers from the Supreme Council of Antiquities,” Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Mostafa Waziry, said in a statement.

“The process included the removal of dirt, soot and damage caused by erosion factors, which returned the original colors of the compartment,” he added.

“The restoration of the gold compartment is part of the Habu temple restoration project, which began in March,” said Saady Awad, director general of Maintenance and Restoration in Upper Egypt.

He explained that “the work in the gold compartment included documentation and recording using a photographic camera before, during and after the restoration work, as well as mechanical and chemical cleansing, and replacement of old, dilapidated parts of the walls.”

The Temple of Habu is one of the most significant Egyptian temples. It was built to honor King Ramesses III, hold funerary rituals, and worship god Amun.

It consists of two courtyards, one featuring inscriptions narrating the wars fought by King Ramesses III, and another featuring inscriptions for celebrations, followed by a hall of columns on both sides.

The chapels of the temple were dedicated to some deities, and the most important of which is the gold compartment, which has been restored and returned to its original colors.

“The first four years of King Ramses III rule were so calm. He was busy strengthening his state and maintained his father’s policy in stabilizing Egypt. The King depicted the images of his wars and victories against Hittites on the walls of his funerary temple in the city of Habu,” explained Dr. Hussein Abdul Basir, director of Bibliotheca Alexandrina and author of the “Pharaohs: Warriors, Diplomats, and Martials”.

“King Ramesses III recorded half of his wars against Hittites on the external wall of the second edifice, to the northern side of the temple. This text is considered the longest known hieroglyphic text engraved in a temple so far,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

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Japan Startup Hopeful Ahead of Second Moon Launch

Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi soars through the air during the trial round of the Four Hills FIS Ski Jumping tournament (Vierschanzentournee), in Innsbruck, Austria on January 4, 2025. (Photo by GEORG HOCHMUTH / APA / AFP)
Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi soars through the air during the trial round of the Four Hills FIS Ski Jumping tournament (Vierschanzentournee), in Innsbruck, Austria on January 4, 2025. (Photo by GEORG HOCHMUTH / APA / AFP)
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Japan Startup Hopeful Ahead of Second Moon Launch

Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi soars through the air during the trial round of the Four Hills FIS Ski Jumping tournament (Vierschanzentournee), in Innsbruck, Austria on January 4, 2025. (Photo by GEORG HOCHMUTH / APA / AFP)
Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi soars through the air during the trial round of the Four Hills FIS Ski Jumping tournament (Vierschanzentournee), in Innsbruck, Austria on January 4, 2025. (Photo by GEORG HOCHMUTH / APA / AFP)

Japanese startup ispace vowed its upcoming second unmanned Moon mission will be a success, saying Thursday that it learned from its failed attempt nearly two years ago.

In April 2023, the firm's first spacecraft made an unsalvageable "hard landing", dashing its ambitions to be the first private company to touch down on the Moon.

The Houston-based Intuitive Machines accomplished that feat last year with an uncrewed craft that landed at the wrong angle but was able to complete tests and send photos.

With another mission scheduled to launch next week, ispace wants to win its place in space history at a booming time for missions to the Moon from both governments and private companies.

"We at ispace were disappointed in the failure of Mission 1," ispace founder and CEO Takeshi Hakamada told reporters.

"But that's why we hope to send a message to people across Japan that it's important to challenge ourselves again, after enduring the failure and learning from it."

"We will make this Mission 2 a success," AFP quoted him as saying.

Its new lander, called Resilience, will blast off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on January 15, along with another lunar lander built by US company Firefly Aerospace.

If Resilience lands successfully, it will deploy a micro rover and five other payloads from corporate partners.

These include an experiment by Takasago Thermal Engineering, which wants to split water into oxygen and hydrogen gas with a view to using hydrogen as satellite and spacecraft fuel.

- Rideshare -

Firefly's Blue Ghost lander will arrive at the Moon after travelling 45 days, followed by ispace's Resilience, which the Japanese company hopes will land on the Earth's satellite at the end of May, or in June.

For the program, officially named Hakuto-R Mission 2, ispace chose to cut down on costs by arranging the first private-sector rocket rideshare, Hakamada said.

Only five nations have soft-landed spacecraft on the Moon: the Soviet Union, the United States, China, India and, most recently, Japan.

Many companies are vying to offer cheaper and more frequent space exploration opportunities than governments.

Space One, another Japanese startup, is trying to become Japan's first company to put a satellite into orbit -- with some difficulty so far.

Last month, Space One's solid-fuel Kairos rocket blasted off from a private launchpad in western Japan but was later seen spiraling downwards in the distance.

That was the second launch attempt by Space One after an initial try in March last year ended in a mid-air explosion.

Meanwhile Toyota, the world's top-selling carmaker, announced this week it would invest seven billion yen ($44 million) in Japanese rocket startup Interstellar Technologies.

"The global demand for small satellite launches has surged nearly 20-fold, from 141 launches in 2016 to 2,860 in 2023," driven by private space businesses, national security concerns and technological development, Interstellar said.