Ramesses II statue to return to Luxor Temple in 2019

CAIRO - 8 December 2018: The secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Mostafa Waziri visited on Saturday the site where the parts of king Ramesses II statue are being assembled to return the statue to its original place at the facade of the temple of Luxor.

Waziry further explained that the assembly work will be executed in cooperation with Chicago House taem. King Ramses II statue parts will be assembled , restored and reinstalled in its original place in Temple of Luxor facade, to be the fifth statue of king Ramesses II at the Temple of Luxor.

Waziry pointed out that the Minister of Antiquities Khaled Anany planned the completion of all the maintenance work by April, 2019 to unveil the statue in tandem with the celebration of World Heritage Day.

Waziry explained that the third statue will be restored to its original location on April 18, 2019, following the massive success that accompanied the transfer of the first statue to the facade of the Temple of Luxor on April 18,2017, as well as the second statue that was placed on the temple on April 18, 2018.

Waziry elaborated that there were six statues to King Ramesses II placed at the façade of Luxor Temple long ago, , pointing out that most probably in the fourth or fifth century this statue was deliberately broken to more than 80 pieces.

It is worth mentioning that the archaeological mission working in the archaeological site of al-Khalwa area, Fayoum, has uncovered a burial well, located to the east of the Prince Waji’s tomb dating back to the Middle Kingdom, Ministry of Antiquities announced on Thursday, December 6.

Waziri said that al-Khalwa, located at southern Fayoum, contains a cemetery dating back to the Middle Kingdom era, namely Amenemhat III era (1842-1799 BC).

He added that the cemetery has the tomb of Prince Waji, the ruler of Fayoum in the Middle Kingdom, as well as the tomb of his mother "Nabat Mout", which lies to the east of it.

Meanwhile, Head of the archaeological mission Ayman Ashmawy referred that the well contains three burial chambers, in which the mission found the upper part of a statue (40 cm height) made from sandstone of a person holding his hand on his chest along with the middle part of a basalt statue (30 cm height).

The mission also discovered inside the three burial chambers a number of pottery vessels and three heads of Canopian vessels, but some of them were broken into pieces.

Ashmawy pointed out that these chambers were likely to have been looted in the ancient history and reused for burial in later eras.

In this regard, Hani Abul Azm, the head of the Central Administration for Antiquities of upper Egypt, remarked that Waji's tomb was carved in rock and was discovered by the Italian mission of the University of Pisa in 1981 through the archaeological survey project in the area.

He added that the mission found inside the tomb a limestone statue, on which the name of the prince was written, a part of a wooden coffin and a pottery vessel. He explained that the statue is currently kept inside the museum store of Kom Oshim, Fayoum.

“The ceiling of the tomb was completely collapsed, maybe due to a massive earthquake in the ancient history or the weight of the roof stones,” said Sayed Al Shoura, General Director of Antiquities Sector.

He said that Italian mission has built a new ceiling to protect the tomb’s inscriptions under the supervision of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.