Statues of pharaoh discovered

One of Egypt's most noted Pharaohs - Amenhotep III, the deputy seal-bearer of the Pharaoh Tuthmosis III - who ruled Egypt some 3,400 years ago, is once more standing tall and looking out across the Nile Valley as a result of the efforts of a team of Egyptian and European archaeologists and with a little help from the British Museum, according to the country's archaeology chief Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

These colossal statues of Amenhotep III, grandfather of Tutankhamun and ruler of Egypt for more than 36 years, have not only been raised but also given back their heads. The two large statues of Amenhotep III were discovered in 1880 then lost in the sand.

However, the statues were found again while the excavation team was clearing out a temple dedicated to him on the west bank of the Nile in the southern city of Luxor, said Hawass. Hawass said one statue is made of black granite and shows Amenhotep wearing a traditional pharaonic headcover, while the second one depicts him in the shape of a sphinx - the mythological creature with a human head and body of a lion.

Amenhotep was the ninth pharaoh of the 18th dynasty, in what is known as the New Kingdom.

ANI