Egypt has officially unveiled meticulously restored colossal statues of an ancient pharaoh in the southern city of Luxor — an event designed to bolster the nation's vital tourism sector.

The twin alabaster figures of Amenhotep III, toppled by an earthquake around 1200 BC, have been painstakingly reassembled at the king's mortuary temple near the Theban Necropolis. Officials presented the project as a flagship of the country's ongoing work to restore, preserve and share its architectural heritage with the world.

For a country whose built environment spans five millennia, restoration is not just archaeology — it is a living practice. The same sensibility runs through modern Egyptian design: an instinct to honour proportion, material and light, and to let each project sit comfortably inside its context.

That instinct, practised day-to-day in a Cairo studio, is what makes each new home, each render, each detail drawing feel connected to a longer story. The statues rose. They fell. And, now, they rise again.