Alabaster colossus of Amenhotep III unearthed
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Photo: MSA
A colossal statue of Amenhotep III (c. 1390-1352 BC), seated and wearing the Nemes headdress, a pleated shendjyt kilt and a royal beard was found in the passageway leading to the third pylon (gate) of the funerary temple at Kom el-Hettan on the west bank of Luxor, 200 meters behind the Colossi of Memnon, which guarded the first pylon.
Dr. Hourig Sourouzian, the head of the mission, said the colossus is unique because it is exceptionally well carved in alabaster, a stone hewn in the quarries of Hatnub in Middle Egypt. This material, she explained, is rarely used for colossal statuary, and the pair of statues from Kom el-Hettan are the only preserved examples of their size, an estimated c. 18 m in height.
“The statue is the northern one of a pair of colossi that were once placed at the gate of the third pylon,” reported Zahi Hawass. The back of one of the two statues’ thrones had already been discovered in a previous excavation and its fragmentary text published. The other parts will be gradually uncovered for conservation and the statue restored in its original location in the near future.
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