Spectacular discoveries in Upper Egypt
The unearthing of a 12 foot (3.62 meters) high statue of Tiy, Great Royal Wife of 18th dynasty Pharaoh Amenhotep III, has been announced by Egyptian and European archaeologists working at the site of a mortuary temple long ago destroyed.
Two sphinxes representing Tiy and Amenhotep III as well as 10 statues in black granite of the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet were also found by the archeologists.
The site was once the mortuary temple of Amenhotep III, one of the most important rulers of the 18th dynasty, a glorious period of Egyptian history. The temple, believed to have been the largest of its kind, was destroyed in a devastating earthquake in the 1st century AD. Its foundations were by then heavily debilitated by the constant flooding of the Nile.
Culture Minister Faruq Hosni told reporters that the statues, along with two 50 foot (15 meters) high statues excavated in recent years, will be placed behind the Colossi of Memnon, the world known twin massive statues that command the road to the Valley of the Kings, as part of an open air museum.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080322/lf_afp/egyptarcheology_080322202539
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