Overview
- The discovery, reported Wednesday, began when a farmer in Behbeit el-Hagar found a carved stone block and alerted antiquities officials.
- A Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities team conducting emergency excavations uncovered two massive royal statue fragments and confirmed the head as Ramses II.
- The recovered head measures about 1.6 meters (5 ft 3 in) and specialists estimate the complete monument may once have stood roughly 8.5 meters (28 ft); a separate statue fragment measures about 2.4 meters (8 ft).
- Archaeologists also found a pink-granite block bearing hieroglyphic royal titles such as 'Nesu Beti' and 'Sa Ra', which support a royal attribution but require further epigraphic study.
- Officials have secured the site and begun conservation work while continued excavation and analysis seek to clarify the fragments' date, original arrangement, and links to the nearby granite Temple of Isis.