Overview
- A local farmer alerted antiquities inspectors after finding a carved block, prompting emergency rescue excavations by Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities.
- Teams uncovered a 1.6‑meter stone head bearing the double crown and an inscribed back pillar that officials say names Ramses II.
- Archaeologists also recovered a second large royal statue fragment about 2.4 meters long whose face resembles the head but has not been definitively inscribed to the pharaoh.
- A nearby four‑foot pink granite block carries hieroglyphic royal titles such as Nesu‑Bity and Sa‑Ra, and experts estimate the complete head’s proportions suggest an original statue roughly 8.5 meters high.
- Excavations and material study are continuing to establish the statues’ original placement, resolve questions of reuse or relocation at the Behbeit el‑Hagar Iseum, and inform the region’s architectural history.