Ramesses to tie up traffic Monday

The Commercial Appeal (Linda A. Moore)

On Monday the statue of Ramesses II will be moved from the front of The Pyramid to the University of Memphis campus.

The process will begin at 8 a.m. and will take several hours to remove it from the base and secure it on a flat-bed truck.

Once on the road, they'll travel at about 30 miles an hour to the U of M, arriving by late morning or early afternoon.

It will be installed off Central Avenue between the theater and the music buildings.

Portions of Central will blocked as the statue is placed, secured and leveled, said Ken Mulvany, the university's landscape architect.

"It will basically be an all-day process," Mulvany said. "There will be a slow cavalcade."