A large-scale restoration project has been completed in Egypt, at one of the most famous ancient monuments – the Colossi of Memnon.
As reported by the online publication Belnovosti, twenty years of restoration work on the giant stone statues of Pharaoh Amenhotep III in the vicinity of Luxor have been successfully completed.
The statues, estimated to be around 3,400 years old, have been severely damaged by time and natural disasters, particularly earthquakes, and have virtually lost their features, Euronews reports.
The colossi, each about 15 meters tall and weighing around 700 tons, once guarded the entrance to the grandiose memorial temple of Amenhotep III, which has not survived to this day.
Project leader, Egyptologist Hourig Sourouzian, called the work the fulfillment of a dream – to save what remains of a once-great temple.
Experts carried out a complete reconstruction and strengthening of the statues, which, according to Mohamed Ismail, a representative of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, were in a “very fragmentary” state.
This project is part of a large-scale Egyptian government program to restore and preserve its cultural heritage.
Earlier in November, the Grand Egyptian Museum, considered the world's largest collection dedicated to a single civilization, held its grand opening near the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Read also
- Levon Oganezov passed away just two weeks shy of his 85th birthday.
- Valentin Serov's painting “Portrait of D. G. von Derviz” is up for auction: the starting price is $1.5 million.