Pharaoh colossus found in Cairo slum

CAIRO: Archaeologists from Egypt and Germany have found a massive 8m statue submerged in groundwater in a Cairo slum that they say probably depicts revered Pharaoh Ramses II, who ruled Egypt more than 3000 years ago.

The discovery, hailed by the Antiquities Ministry as one of the most important made, occurred near the ruins of Ramses II’s temple in the ancient city of Heliopolis, located in the eastern part of modernday Cairo.

‘‘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 alAnani said on Thursday at the site of the statue’s 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 BC.

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’’.

‘‘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,’’ Anani said.

On Thursday, archaeologists, officials, local residents, and news media watched a massive forklift pulled the statue’s head out of the water in a huge pit.

The joint EgyptianGerman expedition also found the 80cm-long upper part of a lifesized limestone statue of Pharaoh Seti II, Ramses II’s grandson.

The sun temple in Heliopolis was founded by Ramses II, lending weight to the likelihood the statue is of him, archaeologists said.

It was one of the largest temples in Egypt, almost double the size of Luxor’s Karnak, but was destroyed in GrecoRoman times. Many of its obelisks were moved to Alexandria or to Europe and stones from the site were looted and used for building as Cairo developed.

Experts will now attempt to extract the remaining pieces of both statues before restoring them. If they are successful and the colossus is proven to depict Ramses II, it will be moved to the entrance of the Grand Egyptian Museum, set to open in 2018.

The discovery was made in the working class area of Matariya, among unfinished buildings and mud roads. — Reuters

PHOTO: REUTERS Royal ear . . . A man passes by the head of an unearthed statue that workers say depicts Pharaoh Ramses II, in Cairo, Egypt.

PHOTO: REUTERS Egyptians gather to watch as a statue depicting revered Pharaoh Ramses II is unearthed in the Matariya area of Cairo.