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While working on his land in a village in northern Egypt, a man made an astonishing discovery: the remains of two massive statues of Ramesses II.
The man, Khaled el-Shahat, immediately notified the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, which sent a team to the village of Behbeit El Hagar to excavate and study the statues, the ministry said in a translated statement.
Ramesses II had one of the longest reigns in Egypt’s history, ruling from around 1279 to 1213 B.C. During his 66 years in power, Egypt controlled an empire that stretched as far northeast as modern-day Syria. He initiated many building projects throughout the empire, and numerous Ramesses II statues have been found throughout Egypt.
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Archaeologists had previously found architectural fragments bearing the name of Ramesses II at Behbeit El Hagar, which is known for its temple dedicated to Isis, a goddess associated with healing and magic, said Mahmoud Emam, an Egyptologist at Cairo University who has worked on remains from the site but was not involved with the recent excavation. He noted that the newly found statues were unearthed on the western side of the temple complex.
Both of the newfound statues were once larger than life, with the bigger one likely standing nearly 28 feet (8.5 meters) tall when it was originally built. However, most of what remains is its head, which is 5.2 feet (1.6 m) tall and depicts the pharaoh wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt.
Part of this large statue’s back pillar has a hieroglyphic inscription that gives the pharaoh’s “Horus” name: Hor-Ka-Nakht-Mery-Maat. This name means “Strong Bull, Beloved of Right, Truth,” Joyce Tyldesley, a professor emeritus of Egyptology at the University of Manchester in the U.K., wrote in her book “Ramesses: Egypt’s Greatest Pharaoh” (Penguin Books, 2001). In Egypt, it was common for pharaohs to have several alternate names with a Horus name, given in honor of the sky god Horus.
The second statue, which stands about 7.9 feet (2.4 m), also likely depicts Ramesses II, the statement said. The king is shown wearing the “Nemes” headdress, a type of striped headcloth that pharaohs wore, the Egypt Exploration Society notes on its website.
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Near this statue is a block of pink granite with two hieroglyphic inscriptions that name Ramesses II and describe him as “King of Upper and Lower Egypt” and the “Son of Ra,” an ancient Egyptian sun god, the statement said.
Hieroglyphs have been found on the statue remains. Some of them describe Ramesses II as the “son of Ra,” a sun god in ancient Egypt.
(Image credit: Courtesy of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities)
The new finds add more evidence that Ramesses II was heavily invested in the site.
Previous discoveries include two architectural fragments bearing the name of Ramesses II near the Isis temple at Behbeit El Hagar, Emam and his colleagues reported in a 2017 paper. One is believed to be from the upper part of a statue, and another seems to originate from the upper part of a wall.
“We concluded that Ramesses II had undertaken major building works at the temple and recommended further archaeological investigations to shed more light on the early history of the site,” Emam said. He noted that the site is threatened by urban growth and that excavation work should be carried out at the temple.
Live Science reached out to the team but did not hear back by the time of publication.
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