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.

drhawass.com

Archaeologists unearthed one of the largest statues found to date of Amenhotep III at his mortuary temple in Luxor.

The 13 meter (42 foot) tall statue was one of a pair that flanked the northern entrance to the grand funerary temple on the west bank of the Nile that is currently the focus of a major excavation. Archaeologists expect to find its twin in the next digging season.

The statue consists of seven large quartzite blocks and still lacks the head. It was actually first discovered in the 1928 and then rehidden, according to the press release from Egypt’s antiquities authority.

Google News

Two red granite statuary fragments of King Amenhotep III were unearthed this week at Amenhotep III’s (1410 – 1372 BC) mortuary temple on the west bank of Luxor.

The first newly discovered artifact is a 2.73m tall head of the god Hapi. Hapi was one of the four sons of Horus and is depicted with a baboon face. The second object is a fragment of a larger statue of King Amehotep III, which features two legs that measure 30cm tall. Excavation is now focused on unearthing the rest of these statuary fragments.

Due to the large number of statuary found in this area, Dr. Zahi Hawass believes that the northern side of the temple may have served as a burial spot for broken and damaged statues. Because the statuary were ritually significant they could not be destroyed, instead Hawass believes that the ancient Egyptians gathered the fallen statues and buried them in a cache beside the temple.

drhawass.com

Photo SCA

The upper part of a double limestone statue of king Amenhotep III (1410-1372 BC) was unearthed at Kom El-Hittan in the west bank of Luxor. Kom el-Hittan is the site of the temple of Amenhotep III, once the largest temple on Luxor’s west bank. The temple originally had two entrances: one on the eastern side where the Colossi of Memnon reside, and one at the northern side, where the double statue was located. The statue was found during a routine excavation carried out by an Egyptian team of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA).

The statue depicts Amenhotep III seated on a throne accompanied by the Theban god, Amun. The king wears the double crown of Egypt, which is decorated with a uraeus.

King Amenhotep III is well known thanks to the overwhelming amount of statuary, which feature him in groupings with different deities, such as Amun-Re, Re-Horakhti, Bastet and Sobek. The latter statue is now a masterpiece of the Luxor museum.

The newly discovered statue of Amenhotep III is 130 cm tall and 95 cm wide.

drhawass.com

A red granite colossus of the ancient Egyptian deity of wisdom, Thoth, was unearthed at the northwestern side of King Amenhotep III’s funerary temple on the west bank of Luxor. The site could contain an avenue of Thoth statues that once outlined the original path leading to the temple.

The Thoth statue is 3.5 meters tall and 140 cm wide, and was discovered during routine excavations carried out by an Egyptian archaeological team led by Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA).

Traces of these colossi were first uncovered at the site during the execution of a development project aimed at controlling the subterranean water level on Luxor’s west bank.

drhawass.com

Two red granite statues of King Amenhotep III and of the god Thoth, were unearthed near the Pharaoh’s funerary temple at Kom el-Hettan on Luxor’s west bank.

The discovery was carried out by an Egyptian team from the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) during routine work reducing the groundwater’s level.

The first statue depicts the 18th Dynasty king, Amenhotep III, together with the god Re-Herakhty, while the second statue represents the god of wisdom, Thoth, in the form of a baboon. A huge, calcite statue fragment possibly dating to the reign of Amenhotep III, was also found.

drhawass.com

Known as the Avenue of the Sphinxes, the 2.7 kilometre (1.7 mile) road was originally built by 18th dynasty Amenhotep III (1387–1349 BC) to connect the temples of Karnak and Luxor. The pharaoh and priests promenaded along this road each year during the Opet festival, carrying the bark and shrine of Amen from the inner sanctum at Karnak to meet his consort Mut at the Temple of Luxor. This religious ceremony, a symbolic re-enactment of the deities’ marriage, was the closest approach the common folk had to the image of the god, even though he always remained shrouded.

The road was subsequently rebuilt by succeeding pharaohs all the way to King Nectanebo of the 30th dynasty (380-362 BC).

Archaeologists has so far unearthed 650 of the 1350 sphinxes believed to have once lined the entire path. Broken remnants of the statues will be restored and relocated to recreate the splendor of the ancient Egyptian civilization when it was the superpower of its day.

Sources: AFP and drhawass.com

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One of the monolithic statues, carved from quartzite, depicts the pharaoh as a sphinx. The second statue, carved from black granite, shows Amenhotep III in a seated position.

Amenhotep III was succeeded by his son Akhenaten, the sun-worshipping pharaoh credited by some for starting the world’s first known monotheistic religion.

Reuters and Earth Times

Houring Sourouzian, the head of the mission, told Al-Ahram Weekly that while clearing the rubble accumulated on the façade of the temple’s great peristyle court, her team unearthed a broken sandstone architrave along with two gigantic statues of Amenhotep III. The first statue, in black granite, is of Pharaoh Amenhotep III seated, hands flat on his knees, and wearing the nemes headdress and the pleated royal kilt, while the name of the Pharaoh is inscribed on the throne. The statue is very well preserved except for the tip of the nose and the bottom of the beard, which are broken.

Sourouzian said that early examination revealed that the statue featured the Pharaoh during the early part of his reign as his facial features were shown with slanting eyes, a short nose and a bulging mouth. Similar seated statues were found long ago in the temple, of which two are now on display in the British Museum and a third in the courtyard of the Mut Temple at Karnak. Others were reused by Ramesside Pharaohs and are dispersed in various museums.

The second statue is made of quartzite and shows the Pharaoh in sphinx form with a human head and lion’s body. The statue is almost complete except for the forepaws, which are missing, while parts of the nose, chin and chest are broken.

As for the architrave, she continued, its total length was 4.2 metres but it was found to be broken in several pieces. Both sides are decorated with hieroglyphic inscription in sunken relief, comprising the dedication text of the temple, called “the House of Millions of Years”, by Amenhotep III to the god Amun-Re.

Al-Ahram

The red quartzite statue, with arms crossed and wearing the red crown of Lower Egypt, is one of a set that stood around the courtyard of his funerary temple at Kom el-Hettan, near Luxor.  The colossus fell centuries ago. In the early 19th century the British collector Henry Salt acquired its head, together with a second head from the same site, and both finished up in the British Museum.

Michael Nielson, of the British Museum, made the replica head, which was then transported to Egypt and repositioned on top of the restored torso with the permission of the Egyptian authorities. The project, which has already assembled large portions of other statues, of which there were probably a dozen, involved a team of 30 from a dozen nationalities, and continues its work this year.

Times Online

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