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Fox News Latino
Dec 14 2014
Amenhotep III statues once more stand before pharoah's temple
Two huge statues of Egyptian Pharoah Amenhotep III that were toppled
by an earthquake in the year 1,200 B.C., have been re-erected on their
bases at the northern entrance to the ruler's funerary temple on the
west bank of the Nile River here.
An international team of archaeologists headed by Armenia's Hourig
Sourouzian and Egypt's Abdelkarim Karrar on Sunday unveiled the second
of the two colossal restored statues in the presence of Egyptian
Antiquities Minister Mamduh al Damati and Luxor Gov. Tarek Saad el
Din.
The two statues, which had broken into some 200 chunks of stone and
had lain submerged in the river had suffered the ravages of 3,200
years of humidity, erosion and vandalism.
The project to raise them, which was deemed an emergency by
archaeological and cultural authorities, was undertaken in two stages
within a single year, an unusual feat.
The first stage was completed between January and March 2014, when
more than 200 fragments of the statues were removed from the water,
transported 50 meters (yards) to dry land and reassembled into the
first of the two colossi standing 12.35 meters (40.5 feet) high and
showing the pharoah striding forward.
In November, the second stage was carried out, in which the second
statue - this one standing 12.93 meters (42.4 feet) high and weighing
110 tons - was raised and reassembled over the course of a month and
10 days.
"It's the best reconstruction of colossal (statues) in the world," the
technical director of the operation, Spanish archaeologist and
restoration expert Migual Angel Lopez, told Efe.
The project was made possible thanks to a system of compressed air
cushions and pulleys capable of moving items weighing up to 70 tons.
The huge pieces of stone were glued together with various types of
resins and reinforced with steel spikes.
Plans are for the entire temple - which also includes the famous
Colossi of Memnon, which are also huge, albeit seated and badly
damaged, statues of Amenhotep III, as well as three patios, a
peristyle, a sanctuary and other archaeological elements - to be made
into a museum in which assorted monumental art and other works
commissioned by the pharoah will be displayed.
Amenhotep III was the son of Pharoah Thutmose IV and belonged to the
18th Egyptian dynasty, which ruled Egypt from 1554-1304 B.C., during
which time the empire's capital was located at Thebes.
The pharoah - who was the grandfather of Tutankhamen - died in about
1354 B.C. and experts say his reign marked Ancient Egyptian
civilization's political and cultural zenith. EFE
em/bp
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/entertainment/2014/12/14/amenhotep-iii-statues-once-more-stand-before-pharoah-temple/
Dec 14 2014
Amenhotep III statues once more stand before pharoah's temple
Two huge statues of Egyptian Pharoah Amenhotep III that were toppled
by an earthquake in the year 1,200 B.C., have been re-erected on their
bases at the northern entrance to the ruler's funerary temple on the
west bank of the Nile River here.
An international team of archaeologists headed by Armenia's Hourig
Sourouzian and Egypt's Abdelkarim Karrar on Sunday unveiled the second
of the two colossal restored statues in the presence of Egyptian
Antiquities Minister Mamduh al Damati and Luxor Gov. Tarek Saad el
Din.
The two statues, which had broken into some 200 chunks of stone and
had lain submerged in the river had suffered the ravages of 3,200
years of humidity, erosion and vandalism.
The project to raise them, which was deemed an emergency by
archaeological and cultural authorities, was undertaken in two stages
within a single year, an unusual feat.
The first stage was completed between January and March 2014, when
more than 200 fragments of the statues were removed from the water,
transported 50 meters (yards) to dry land and reassembled into the
first of the two colossi standing 12.35 meters (40.5 feet) high and
showing the pharoah striding forward.
In November, the second stage was carried out, in which the second
statue - this one standing 12.93 meters (42.4 feet) high and weighing
110 tons - was raised and reassembled over the course of a month and
10 days.
"It's the best reconstruction of colossal (statues) in the world," the
technical director of the operation, Spanish archaeologist and
restoration expert Migual Angel Lopez, told Efe.
The project was made possible thanks to a system of compressed air
cushions and pulleys capable of moving items weighing up to 70 tons.
The huge pieces of stone were glued together with various types of
resins and reinforced with steel spikes.
Plans are for the entire temple - which also includes the famous
Colossi of Memnon, which are also huge, albeit seated and badly
damaged, statues of Amenhotep III, as well as three patios, a
peristyle, a sanctuary and other archaeological elements - to be made
into a museum in which assorted monumental art and other works
commissioned by the pharoah will be displayed.
Amenhotep III was the son of Pharoah Thutmose IV and belonged to the
18th Egyptian dynasty, which ruled Egypt from 1554-1304 B.C., during
which time the empire's capital was located at Thebes.
The pharoah - who was the grandfather of Tutankhamen - died in about
1354 B.C. and experts say his reign marked Ancient Egyptian
civilization's political and cultural zenith. EFE
em/bp
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/entertainment/2014/12/14/amenhotep-iii-statues-once-more-stand-before-pharoah-temple/