Archaeologists from Egypt and
Germany have discovered the remains of an ancient Egyptian statue they believe
could depict one of history's most famous rulers.The likeness of what may be Pharaoh
Ramses II was found submerged
in groundwater in a working-class neighborhood of Cairo. "We found the
bust of the statue and the lower part of the head and now we removed the head
and we found the crown and the right ear and a fragment of the right eye,"
Khaled al-Anani, Egypt's antiquities minister, told
Reuters. The 26-foot statue is made of quartzite and could be up to 3,000
years old. The Antiquities Ministry in Egypt is hailing the discovery as
significant. The remains lack an inscription bearing the pharaoh's name, but
the discovery's proximity to a temple devoted to Ramses suggest the statue is
of his likeness, the ministry says. A limestone statue of Pharaoh Seti II, the
grandson of Ramses II, was also found at the site. The discovery was made by a
joint effort between Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities and researchers from the
University of Leipzig. A rising water table, industrial waste, and piling
rubble have made excavation of the ancient site difficult. Ramses II is one of the
ancient world's most famous leaders. He ruled Egypt from 1279 to 1213 B.C.,
making his 60-year-long-rule one of the longest in ancient Egypt. His military
exploits expanded Egypt's reach as far east as modern Syria and as far south as
modern Sudan. The growth and prosperity seen in Egypt at the time earned him
the title "Ramses the Great." Excavation will continue in Cairo and,
if the remaining pieces can restore the statue, it will be erected at the Grand
Egyptian Museum, which is set to open in 2018.The neighborhood in which the
statue was discovered is in the eastern part of the city and was built over the
ancient city of Heliopolis. The city was so named because it served as the
center of worship for the ancient Egyptian sun god Re.Ramses was a chief
worshiper of Re. He commissioned a number of temples in Heliopolis to be built
for worshipping the sun god. It's also believed Ramses II may have been the
pharaoh from the biblical Book of Exodus from whom Moses demanded the release
of his people. In 2006,
archaeologists discovered one of the largest sun temples in Cairo under a
marketplace. It was found to house a number of statues of Ramses II weighing as
much as five tons. One such statue depicted the pharaoh seated and wearing a
leopard's skin, indicating that he might have served as a high priest of Re
when the temple was built. Much of what was once Heliopolis is now covered with
residential buildings. Researchers believe many more remains of the ancient
world lie hidden under the wider city of Cairo. Source: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/03/egypt-pharaoh-ramses-statue-discovered-cairo/
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