The top part of a statue dedicated to the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II has been discovered in the southern part of the country, Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced.
The find was made by an Egyptian-US archaeological team, complementing the lower half, which was unearthed in the Ashmunein region of Al Minya province nearly a century ago.
This newly discovered top segment, measuring 3.8 meters in height, features Ramses II's head, shoulders, and upper torso.
Moreover, the statue depicts the pharaoh adorned with the dual crown symbolizing his dominion over both Upper and Lower Egypt, with a cobra, a significant symbol of royalty in ancient Egyptian culture, prominently displayed at the front of the crown.
"Not only is it a wonderful opportunity to have a whole other massive statue of the famed king, it also adds to our general understanding and fills gaps in our data on the large corpus of Ramses II's statuary," Dr. Salima Ikram, a professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo, told the media. "Through each discovery, we have been able to trace changes in the style during the course of his very long reign."
Initial assessments of the limestone block confirm that it belongs to the statue of Ramses II discovered in 1930 by German archaeologist Gunther Roeder. Once the top and bottom sections are reconnected, the statue is projected to reach a height of seven meters, as shared by Dr. Bassem Gehad, leader of the Egyptian archaeological team involved in the excavation.
The ongoing excavation in El Ashmunein by the Egyptian team, in collaboration with the University of Colorado mission, aims to uncover a religious complex believed to date back to Egypt's New Kingdom era (1550-1070 BC), which eventually collapsed during Roman rule in later centuries.
"Though we have not found the complex we were initially looking for, a statue of such importance is a sign that we are digging in the right place," said Egyptian antiquities official Adel Okasha, overseeing the excavation.
He expressed optimism that more significant discoveries are on the horizon.