Ramesses II statue fragments unearthed in Egypt
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Archaeologists working in the village of Behbeit El-Hagar, in the Nile Delta of Egypt, discovered fragments of statues believed to depict Ramesses II.
The team began emergency excavations after finding a 1.6-meter-tall head of the pharaoh. This head, showing Ramesses II wearing a double crown, led researchers to estimate the complete statue may have reached 8.5 meters in height, a typical size for royal statues of that era.
They also uncovered parts of a second statue, around 2.40 meters high, which appears to also represent Ramesses II, though it lacks identifying inscriptions. A nearby granite block, 1.30 meters long, bore the pharaoh’s royal titles. The statues’ presence in Behbeit El-Hagar, a site where a temple to the goddess Isis was built centuries after Ramesses II’s death (who reigned from approximately 1279 to 1213 BCE for 66 years), is currently unexplained.
Archaeologists theorize the statues may have been moved to the location, stood there originally, or were repurposed from elsewhere, and further investigation is needed to determine their origins.
