Egypt has a new—sort of—attraction for visitors: two immense statues—nearly 50 feet tall—of Pharaoh Amenhotep III. The statues, known as the Colossi of Memnon, were destroyed by an earthquake about 3200 years ago, when they were ‘only’ about 200 years old.
The restoration of the statues at the southern city of Luxor has taken over twenty years to complete, and the pair still show signs of the serious damage they suffered. They commemorate a Pharaoh who ruled during ancient Egypt’s most prosperous period, known for many large building projects.
Authorities from the Antiquities Ministry, which recently opened the Gramd Egyptian Museum near Cairo, hope that the restored statues will help boost tourism in the southern region.
Mohamed Ismail, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities said that after the earthquake, the statues were fragmented and partially quarried away, and their pedestals dispersed. Some of the stones were used in the building of the Karnak temple; archaeologists have returned them to be part of the reconstruction.
