A joint German-Egyptian archaeological mission led by Horig Suruzyan during excavations in the memorial temple of Pharaoh Amenhotep III discovered a partially preserved sculpture of the god Horus with the head of a falcon.
Ahram Online talks about the opening. It was performed in the Egyptian city of Luxor. Archaeologists have examined the memorial temple of Pharaoh Amenhotep III (c. 1388-1351 BC) from the XVIII dynasty. It was one of the largest memorial temples of its time and is now located in the Kom el-Hettan area.
During excavations in one of the halls, archaeologists discovered a partially preserved colossus - a statue 1.85 meters high. Only her lower part was chipped off, her legs were missing, and her arms were broken. At the same time, the body and head were preserved intact.
The sculpture depicts Horus - the powerful ancient Egyptian god of the sky and the sun. He was usually depicted with the head of a falcon. It was in this tradition that the sculpture was made.
The god's head is covered with a wig, he has a wide collar on his chest, and a pleated sash at his waist. The sculpture was made of granodiorite, an igneous rock intermediate in composition between granite and diorite. Archaeologists did not find any inscriptions on the artifact.
Note that the memorial temple of Amenhotep III was first surveyed in 1934 by a German expedition led by Herbert Ricke. Since 1998, it has been studied by a joint German-Egyptian mission.
At various times, a large number of statues and steles were found in the temple, including statues of the goddess Sekhmet and Queen Tiya, as well as sphinxes with the bodies of crocodiles and sphinxes with the heads of Anubis.
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Author: Denis Peredelsky