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Archaeologists Unveil Amenhotep III Statue Rescued After 3,200 Years

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  • Archaeologists Unveil Amenhotep III Statue Rescued After 3,200 Years

    ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNVEIL AMENHOTEP III STATUE RESCUED AFTER 3,200 YEARS

    12:48, 15 Dec 2014

    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, the GlobalPost reports.

    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.

    http://www.armradio.am/en/2014/12/15/archaeologists-unveil-amenhotep-iii-statue-rescued-after-3200-years/

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