Second Part of Ancient Egyptian Colossus Lifted From Site
The Ministry of Antiquities says that, once fully excavated, the eight-meter colossus will be assembled at the Egyptian museum in central Cairo.
The three-ton torso of a massive statue that may be of one of Egypt's most famous pharaohs has been lifted out from mud and groundwater in a Cairo slum.
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The torso was pulled by a crane as dozens of workers supported it while being moved to dry land Monday.
The first part of the eight-meter colossus — a large portion of the head — was pulled up Thursday.
The Ministry of Antiquities says the statue's parts would be assembled at the Egyptian museum in central Cairo, where they would be pieced together and restored before being moved to the yet-to-open Grand Egyptian Museum near the Giza Pyramids.
"Last Tuesday they called me to announce the big discovery of a colossus of a king, most probably Ramses II, made out of quartzite," Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anani told Reuters on Thursday at the site of the statue's original unveiling.
The most powerful and celebrated ruler of ancient Egypt, the pharaoh (also known as Ramses the Great) was the third of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt and ruled from 1279 to 1213 BCE.
He led several military expeditions and expanded the Egyptian Empire to stretch from Syria in the east to Nubia in the south. His successors called him the "Great Ancestor."
The joint Egyptian-German expedition also found the upper part of a life-sized limestone statue of Pharaoh Seti II, Ramses II's grandson, that is 80 centimeters long.