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Al-Ahram Weekly 21 - 27 October 1999 Issue No. 452 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 21 - 27 October 1999 Issue No. 452
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters
photo: Emad Abdel-Hadi
Digging up Ramses II's monolith
By Nevine El-Aref
Next month, an Egyptian archaeological mission will excavate the area to the west of the open-air museum of Sohag in an attempt to uncover more of the previously discovered toppled statue of Ramses II. Yehia El-Masri, director general of Sohag's archaeological sites, explained that excavation was stopped in 1991, soon after the discovery of Ramses' torso, because the rest of the statue lay beneath layers of silt and wind-blown sand at the site of a Muslim cemetery.
"Now the cemetery has been moved to another site, far from the archaeological area," said El-Masri. "The transfer was carried out by the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) at a cost of LE32 million," he added.
Ramses II, one of the most famous kings of the New Kingdom, ruled Egypt for more than 60 years. He was a great builder of huge monuments and his statues are to be found all over Egypt.
Ramses II had many wives, but Nefertari was his most beloved consort for whom he built a unique tomb in the Valley of the Queens in Luxor. He also constructed a temple in her honour at Abu Simbel. He had many children, among them Merenpetah, who may be the king associated with the biblical exodus, and Merit-Amun, whose magnificent 11-metre-high statue is the main feature of Sohag's open-air museum.
