Luxor, 15 December (H.S.): Egypt unveiled the restored Colossi of Memnon on Sunday, two colossal alabaster statues of Pharaoh Amenhotep III that had lain fragmented for millennia following a devastating earthquake around 1200 BC.
The 14.5-meter and 13.6-meter figures, reassembled through a meticulous Egyptian-German project spanning two decades, now flank the entrance to the pharaoh's vast mortuary temple on Luxor's Nile west bank, evoking the grandeur of ancient Egypt's New Kingdom prosperity.
Amenhotep III, who reigned from 1390-1353 BC in an era of peace and monumental construction, is depicted seated in regal nemes headdress and kilt, gazing eastward with smaller statues of his queen Tiye at his feet.Archaeologists, led by German Egyptologist Hourig Sourouzian, recovered scattered blocks—even those repurposed at Karnak—to reconstruct the monolithic cores augmented with separately carved elements from Hatnub quarries.
Supreme Council of Antiquities Secretary-General Mohamed Ismail hailed the revival as a vital step in resurrecting the 35-hectare temple complex, rivaling Karnak in scale and once the epicenter of Egypt's golden age. Tourism Minister Sherif Fathy emphasized Luxor's enduring allure, projecting 18 million visitors this year toward a 30-million annual target by 2032, buoyed by such restorations amid economic recovery.
The ceremony, timed six weeks after the Grand Egyptian Museum's opening near Giza, underscores Cairo's strategy to leverage pharaonic heritage for tourism revival post-2011 unrest, pandemic setbacks, and global conflicts, with 15.7 million arrivals in 2024 fueling 8% of GDP.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
