Another statue uncoverd at the temple of Amenhotep III, Luxor

drhawass.com

Press Release.

The upper portion of a red granite double statue featuring King Amenhotep III (1390-1352 BC) with the falcon-headed sun god Re-Horakhti was found today on the north western side of Amenhotep III’s funerary temple on Luxor’s west bank.

Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosny announced that the statue was found during a routine excavation carried out by an Egyptian team from the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), directed by Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the SCA.

Hawass remarked that the statue is one of the best new finds in the area because of its expert craftsmanship, which reflect the skills of the ancient Egyptian artisans. Dr. Hawass pointed out that King Amenhotep III is well known for his overwhelming amount of statuary, particularly group statuary featuring the king with deities such as: Amun-Re, Re-Horakhti, Bastet, Sobek and Sekhmet, the goddess of healing. Hawass pointed out that the Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project, directed by Dr. Hourig Sourouzian, has unearthed more than 80 statues of the goddess Sekhmet during their excavations at the temple. It has been suggested that the Sekhmet statues were erected because Amenhotep III was very sick during his final years.

The Egyptian mission has found several statues depicting King Amenhotep III with the solar god, Amun-Re and a granite colossus featuring Thoth, the god of wisdom, in the form of a baboon. “This is the first time that we have found a standing statue of the god Thoth,” asserted Hawass.

According to Mansour Boraik, General Supervisor of the Luxor Antiquities Department of the SCA, a number of group statues of Amenhotep III are still partially buried under private farmland that surrounds the temple. Dr. Samir Farag, governor of Luxor, and the SCA are now trying to reach an agreement with the farmer to buy this section of land so that the statues can be fully excavated. In the future, this area will be converted into an open-air museum that will display the objects found in the mortuary temple complex.

Heritage Key (Ann Wuyts)

With photo

Archaeologists today discovered the upper portion of a statue of Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III at Luxor, Egypt.

The find – part of a double statue featuring King Amenhotep III with the falcon-headed sun god Re-Horakhti – was made at the pharaoh's funerary temple, located on the west bank of the Nile.

In a press statement, Egypt's Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosny said that the discovery was made during routine excavations at Amenhotep III's mortuary temple carried out by the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA).