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Amenhotep
III statue [Credit: kairoinfo4u/Flickr]
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CAIRO:
Antiquities Minister Mamdouh el-Damaty Saturday inspected the restoration
project to reassemble the two 3,400-year-old colossal statues of Amenhotep
which once flanked the northern entrance of the Pharaoh’s temple in the west
bank of Luxor, according to Abdel-Hakim Karar, director of the Upper Egypt Antiquities
Department, Sunday.
“The
statues were first discovered in 1933. In February 2013, they were rediscovered
submerged in irrigation water in a farm next to the Pharaoh’s mortuary temple
in Kom El Hettan, west of Luxor, before the Egyptian-European mission tasked
with excavation work at the temple started the process of moving the two
statues to start the restoration,” said Karar.
The
14 meter-high colossi, which represent the Pharaoh standing on four-meter
pedestals, are made of limestone and show him wearing the double crown of Upper
and Lower Egypt.
According
to Karar, the temple, along with several statues and pillars, was badly damaged
by a severe earthquake in 27 B.C. The restoration work, which featured
rejoining more than 20 blocks to the statues, is based on carvings found on the
back of one of the statues showing how they looked when erected.
“The
statues had lain in pieces for centuries in the fields, damaged by destructive
forces of nature like earthquakes, and later by irrigation water, salt,
encroachment and vandalism. This beautiful temple still has enough for us to
study and conserve,” Horig Sourouzian, head of the Colossi of Memnon and
Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project (CMATCP), was quoted as saying by The
International Business Times.
When
restored, the statues will join the famous Colossi of Memnon, two other seated
statues of Amenhotep III flanking the northern entrance of the temple.
“The
temple is 10 times bigger than other mortuary temples in the west bank. It used
to be 700,100 meters. All its walls have been destroyed, but whatever was
inside is still there. Our job is to save the temple that was once prestigious,
but unfortunately was very badly damaged. I believe within 20 years, we will
have achieved our objectives here,” Sourouzian said in a video at
www.discoveringegypt.com.
Amenhotep
III, the ninth pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty, ruled Egypt from 1386 B.C. to 1349
B.C. and his reign is believed to have marked the political and cultural zenith
of ancient Egyptian civilization.
Source: Cairo Post – By/Rany Mostafa
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