GHARBIA GOVERNARATE, EGYPT—According to an Ahram Online report, fragments of two colossal statues have been discovered in Egypt’s Nile Delta. One statue has been identified as Ramesses II, and the second is also thought to represent the pharaoh, who ruled from about 1279 to 1213 B.C. Archaeologists from Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) uncovered the statues after they were called to the site by a local villager who found an inscribed granite block on his property. Hisham El-Leithy of the SCA said that the first statue fragment is a five-foot-long head depicting Ramesses II wearing a double crown, symbolizing the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. A piece of the statue’s back pillar is inscribed with the name “Hor Ka Nakht Mery Maat,” identifying the ruler. The second statue fragment is almost eight feet long, though it is missing its legs and base, and the headdress has been damaged. El-Leithy said that archaeologists will continue to investigate the site. To read about a recently discovered lintel inscribed with titles belonging to Ramesses II, go to “Around the World: Egypt.”
