TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Second part of ancient Egyptian statue lifted from site
Change Size
A massive statue, that may be of pharaoh Ramses II, one of the country's most famous ancient rulers, is surrounded by antiquities workers after it was pulled out of groundwater in a Cairo slum, Egypt, Monday, March 13, 2017. (AP/Amr Nabil)
T
he three-ton torso of a massive statue that may be of one of Egypt's most famous pharaohs was lifted Monday from mud and groundwater where it was recently discovered in a Cairo suburb.
The torso was pulled by a crane as dozens of workers supported it while being moved to dry land where it was covered by a white fabric.
The first part of the colossus — a large portion of the head — was pulled up Thursday.
Read also: Ancient palace revealed under destroyed Mosul shrine
The Ministry of Antiquities said 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.
The statue is likely of Ramses II, who took the throne in his early 20s and ruled Egypt for 60 years more than 3,000 years ago. He is credited with expanding ancient Egypt's reach as far as modern Syria to the east and modern Sudan to the south.
The expansion earned him the title "Ramses the Great."
The statue was discovered last week by a German-Egyptian archaeological team in the Cairo district of Matariya.
