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As you read this story, you will learn the following:
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In 1930, German archaeologists discovered the lower half of a massive statue, estimating that it may have originally been about 23 feet tall.
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Now, American and Egyptian archaeologists have announced the discovery of the long-missing upper half, thankfully intact.
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A proposal to combine the bottom with the long-missing upper half has been submitted, and the discoverers are confident it will be approved.
About 96 years ago, German archaeologist Günther Roeder unearthed the lower half of a colossal 23-foot-tall statue of Ramesses II, one of the most famous pharaohs among the 31 dynasties in ancient Egyptian history. Rhodes discovered the statue 150 miles south of Cairo in the province of Minya, near the modern city of Ashmunin. In ancient times, this area along the Nile was called Khemnu. It was the provincial capital of Egypt’s Old Kingdom (2649 BC to 2130 BC) and later became known as Hermopolis Magna when the Romans ruled the Mediterranean.
It is understood that many treasures of the region’s glorious history are buried in the surrounding desert, and while Rod’s discovery proved to be extraordinary, the rest of the massive statue he discovered has remained lost to time… until now.
In March 2024, Egyptian archaeologists working with American experts announced that after 96 years, they had finally found the missing upper half of the Statue of Rhodes. Experts from the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities reported in an interview with Reuters that the upper part is approximately 12.5 feet tall and depicts Ramses II wearing a headdress that features a royal cobra.
However, when the face-down statue was first discovered in January 2024, the discovery of the ancient statue and its exquisite preservation were far from certain.
“One of the problems with Hermopolis is its proximity to the Nile. After [the building of] Aswan Low Dam, groundwater levels become a big problem. “There’s no guarantee that the stone will be fine,” Yvona Trnka-Amrhein, assistant professor of classics at the University of Colorado Boulder and co-leader of the team, said in a press statement. “Sometimes, the sandstone that is found is basically just sand or degraded limestone. It could just be a stone.” “
Fortunately, after further excavation, the team confirmed that the statue was extremely well preserved, and made a surprising discovery – traces of blue and yellow paint were also found on the surface of the statue. It is hoped that further analysis of this pigment will help researchers understand the context in which the statue was created and its original appearance.
“We knew it might be there, but we were not specifically looking for it,” Ternka-Amlein said in a press statement. “It seems reasonable that the rest of the statue might be there, but it was a complete surprise.”
Thankfully, that hunch proved correct, and Egyptian co-leader Bassem Gerhard has submitted a proposal to finally bring the two halves back together (Rod’s lower half remains at Ashmounein’s site). Trnka-Amrhein expects it will be approved.
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