Renovation of discovered head of Ramses II completed

CAIRO – 11 June 2018: Renovation of the discovered head of Ramses II statuein the Temple of Kom Ombo was completed, according to Ahmed Sayed, general manager of Kom Ombo antiquities sector.

Sayed said that the head was put in the museum's store of the temple to undergo some necessary studies.

He added that among the uncovered pieces at the temple was a stone block, in which the name of King Tuthmosis III was carved, referring that after conducting the necessary studies on these artifacts,they will be put in an open museum for visitors.

New parts of the statue of Ramses II were found in the Temple of Kom Ombo in Aswan on February 27, during implementing a project to protect the site from groundwater.

Ayman Ashmawy, head of the Egyptian Antiquities Department at the Ministry of Antiquities, said that the importance of this discovery lies in finding new proof of the existence and use of this temple in the modern state era. Before this discovery, the only proof was represented in Tuthmosis III;there is a visible part in the statue that depicts King Ramses II accompanied by God Sobek and God Horus, the main gods of the Temple of Kom Ombo.

Ashmawy added that the archeological team is currently working hard on the site to discover the rest of the statue so that it can be re-installed as soon as possible.

Mohammed Abdel Badea, head of the Central Administration of Upper Egypt, said that this part of the statue represents the king in the body of an Assyrian, where the hands are seen intersecting on the chest and holding the mark of Ankh.

As for the head found in the outer back of the temple, it still retains some color effects; there are remnants of red on the face and yellow on the forehead at the beginning of the crown.