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Archaeologists in the suburbs of Cairo on the site of the ancient capital of Heliopolis found two statues of the pharaohs at once, which are 3000 years old. This event is already called one of the most important discoveries in the history of Egypt.
One of the statues, 26 feet (8 meters) high, carved from quartzite, probably belongs to Ramses II himself, the pharaoh who ruled Egypt over 3,000 years ago.
A joint Egyptian-German expedition, which included the University of Leipzig, also found the upper part of a life-size limestone statue of Pharaoh Seti II, the grandson of Ramses II, which is about 80 centimeters long.
“I got a call and was told that a huge quartzite colossus of the pharaoh, most likely Ramses II, was found,” Minister of Antiquities Khaled al-Anani told Reuters.
Promotional video:
Egyptian Antiquities Minister Khaled Ye Nan (pictured kneeling left) examines the results that could help the country revitalize tourism.
“First we found a bust of the statue with the lower part of the head, and then the right side of the head with an ear and a fragment of the right eye,” Anani said.
What the whole statue of Ramses II could look like:
Ramses II
Ramses II was the third pharaoh of the nineteenth dynasty of Egypt and ruled from 1279 to 1213 BC. He was the most powerful and famous ruler of Ancient Egypt. Known as the “Great Ancestor,” he led several successful military expeditions and expanded the Egyptian Empire, which stretched from Syria in the east to Nubia in the south.
The reign of the pharaoh, called by the 19th century Egyptologists Ramses the Great, from 1279 to 1213 BC marked the last peak of the imperial power of Egypt. He ascended the throne as the third king of the nineteenth dynasty at the age of twenty-five. During his 67-year reign, he is believed to have built more temples and had more children than any other pharaoh.
Ramses was appointed regent at age 14 by his father Seti I and became an army captain at the age of ten. Becoming a pharaoh in the early 1920s, he expanded his empire, led an army north to reclaim the lost provinces (the territories of modern Syria and Israel), which his father was never able to conquer. In Nubia, part of which is now in northern Sudan, Ramses II built six temples, including Abu Simbel. It is believed that his image, carved into the rock, served as the inspiration for the creation of a similar monument depicting American presidents on Mount Rushmore. Ramses kept a harem of hundreds of women and had over 100 children, and dedicated the Abu Simbel temple to his beloved Nefertari (Beautiful companion).
Experts say Ramses II saw the need to erect monumental structures as the key to the success of the reign of the pharaoh's reign. His building projects include the famous Pillared Great Hall at Thebes - part of present-day Luxor - and his own burial temple known as Ramsesum. He also built a city - Per Ramessu, also known as Pi-Ramses, northeast of Cairo. The grave of his main wife, Nefertari, is one of the best-preserved royal tombs, and the resting place of some of his sons was recently discovered in the Valley of the Kings.
Ramses II lived to be 90 years old. He was buried in the Valley of the Kings, but his mummy, which has the face of an old man with a long narrow face, a bright nose and a large jaw, was moved to nearby Deir el-Bahari to keep it safe from marauders. Still with its hair, skin and teeth, the mummy was rediscovered in 1881 and is kept in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Nine subsequent pharaohs bore the name Ramses in honor of their great ancestor.
Experts will try to remove the remaining parts of the statue to restore it.
The discovery of these two statues once again confirms the importance of the ancient city of Heliopolis.
What do we know about Heliopolis?
The Temple of the Sun in Heliopolis was one of the largest temples in Egypt, almost twice the size of Karnak Luxor, but was destroyed in Greco-Roman times. It was founded by Ramses II, which increases the likelihood that the statue belongs to him, archaeologists say. It was one of the largest temples in Egypt, almost twice the size of Karnak Luxor, but it was destroyed in Greco-Roman times.
Many of his obelisks were moved to Alexandria or Europe, and the stones from the site were looted and used to build Cairo. After restoration, the colossus of Ramses II will be installed at the entrance to the Great Egyptian Museum, which will open in 2018.
Dietrich Rau, the head of the German expedition team, told Reuters that the ancient Egyptians considered Heliopolis to be the home of the sun god. “God the sun created the world in Heliopolis, in Mataria. According to ancient belief, the world was created here, in Mataria, - said Rau.
Today the area of the ancient city is the densely built-up outskirts of Cairo.
Egyptian Antiquities Minister Khaled Ye Nan believes the find could be a lifesaver for Egypt's tourism industry, which has suffered many setbacks since the uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
The number of tourists visiting Egypt dropped to 9.8 million in 2011 and more than 14.7 million since 2010.
The bombing that damaged a Russian plane carrying 224 people from the Red Sea resort in October 2015 also hit the Egyptian economy, with tourism falling to 1.2 million in the first quarter of 2016 and to 2.2 million a year earlier.
Author: Sil2