Statue of Ramesses II
Ancient Egyptian statue in Memphis From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Statue of Ramesses II is a colossal 3,200-year-old figure of Ramesses II, depicting him standing. It is 11 meters tall, made from red granite, and weighs 83 tons.[1]
The statue was discovered in 1882, broken into six pieces, at Mit Rahina near ancient Memphis, Egypt, where it lay for several decades.[2]
Early attempts at restoration in situ failed, but in 1955, Egyptian Prime Minister Gamal Abdel Nasser moved the fragments to the large Bab Al-Hadid Square in Cairo, outside Cairo's main railway station; the square was then renamed Ramses Square. There the statue was restored to its full height and erected on a three-metre pedestal at the edge of a fountain. It was stabilized by iron bars inside the body.[2][3]
In 2006, the Egyptian government decided to relocate the statue to a more appropriate location, as Ramses Square turned out to be an unsuitable location, where the statue was exposed to corrosive pollution and constant vibration from traffic and subways. It was decided to first move the colossus to a temporary site on the Giza Plateau, anticipating a final move to the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) in Giza.[1][2]
Criticized for its costs and concerns about pollution at the Giza location,[4] the transportation of the statue from Ramses Square to Giza was a technological challenge that had been in the planning since 2002. To test the proposed relocation process, a replica was made and transported along the planned route to Giza several weeks before the actual scheduled move.
The statue was eventually moved as a single intact piece on August 25, 2006. During its ten-hour transport the statue was wrapped and covered in rubber foam. Two flat-back trucks carried the weight of the statue and its support structures as it travelled in a vertical position.[5][4]
In 2018, and after some restoration performed at the temporary location, the statue was moved to its current location, 400 meters away, in the entrance hall of the Grand Egyptian Museum.[6][7][8][9][10]
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