Khaled al-Shahat triggered the Ramses II colossal statue discovery in Egypt after finding a pink stone covered in hieroglyphic inscriptions while working on his land in the Nile Delta. He contacted authorities, and archaeologists later uncovered the remains of two colossal statues of Ramses II beneath his property.
The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said one find was a five-foot-tall head believed to have once topped a statue that may have stood nearly 28 feet tall including the base. The second statue fragment measured nearly eight feet tall, but its base and legs were missing.
Behbeit El-Hagar excavations
The discovery came from Behbeit El-Hagar, a village in the Nile Delta about 80 miles north of Cairo, on the western side of the temple complex. The pink granite block Shahat found was more than four feet long and carried traces of hieroglyphic inscriptions, including the titles “Nesw-Bity” and “Sa-Ra.”
Archaeologists also found the head of the first statue wearing a double crown, while the second head was clad in a nemes and had a face similar to the first, officials said. Mahmoud Emam said this was not the first time archaeologists had discovered artifacts related to Ramses II in Behbeit El-Hagar, which is known for the remains of an ancient temple dedicated to Isis.
Shahat and the site
Ramses II ruled ancient Egypt from 1279 B.C.E. to 1213 B.C.E., while the temple history at Behbeit El-Hagar runs through Nectanebo II, Ptolemy II, and Ptolemy III. The temple collapsed sometime before the early third century C.E., and the new fragments add rare large-scale material to a site already tied to earlier phases of construction and collapse.
Shahat said, “I was surprised and happy when they discovered more antiquities.” He added, “They told me this might change the history of the area.” Archaeologists are continuing to excavate the site and study the artifacts, and the remaining question is how the two statues were originally placed at the site.
