The Prudhoe Lions, or Soleb Lions, are a pair of

Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

ian red

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

monumental sculpture The term monumental sculpture is often used in art history and criticism, but not always consistently. It combines two concepts, one of function, and one of size, and may include an element of a third more subjective concept. It is often used fo ...

s dating from the

18th Dynasty The Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XVIII, alternatively 18th Dynasty or Dynasty 18) is classified as the first dynasty of the New Kingdom of Egypt, the era in which ancient Egypt achieved the peak of its power. The Eighteenth Dynasty ...

, . They are now presented in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

. The lions originally stood as guardian figures at the

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

of Soleb in

Nubia Nubia (, Nobiin language, Nobiin: , ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the confluence of the Blue Nile, Blue and White Nile, White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), and the Cataracts of the Nile, first cataract ...

, which was built by the 18th Dynasty King

Amenhotep III Amenhotep III ( , ; "Amun is satisfied"), also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent or Amenhotep the Great and Hellenization, Hellenized as Amenophis III, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Eighteenth Dynasty. According to d ...

. As expected of statues of such grandeur, the lions bear numerous inscriptions documenting their reuse by different rulers. The original inscriptions relate to the pharaoh

. The renewal of the temple by

Tutankhamun Tutankhamun or Tutankhamen, (; ), was an Egyptian pharaoh who ruled during the late Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt. Born Tutankhaten, he instituted the restoration of the traditional polytheistic form of an ...

is also recorded: "he who renewed the monument of (or 'for') his father, the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Lord of the Two Lands, Nebmare, image of Re, Son of Re, Amenophis, Ruler of Thebes" Another inscription indicates that they were moved by Ay, Tutankhamun's successor. In the 3rd century BC, the lions were moved to

Jebel Barkal Jebel Barkal or Gebel Barkal () is a mesa or large rock outcrop located 400 km north of Khartoum, next to Karima in Northern State in Sudan, on the Nile River, in the region that is sometimes called Nubia. The jebel is 104 m tall, has a f ...

, a city to the south of the country by Amanislo, a

Kushite The Kingdom of Kush (; Egyptian: 𓎡𓄿𓈙 𓈉 ''kꜣš'', Assyrian: ''Kûsi'', in LXX Χους or Αἰθιοπία; ''Ecōš''; ''Kūš''), also known as the Kushite Empire, or simply Kush, was an ancient kingdom in Nubia, centered a ...

king of

Meroë Meroë (; also spelled ''Meroe''; Meroitic: ; and ; ) was an ancient city on the east bank of the Nile about 6 km north-east of the Kabushiya station near Shendi, Sudan, approximately 200 km north-east of Khartoum. Near the site is ...

. Following tradition, Amanislo also had his names engraved on the lions. In the early nineteenth century AD the lions were collected at Jebel Barkal by Lord Prudhoe, who had them shipped to Cairo and further on to London. According to the museum's blog on how objects came to be in the collection, "The British Consul General in Cairo helped secure the necessary '' firmans'' (permissions) from the authorities. Lord Prudhoe then donated the lions to the British Museum in 1835." The pair share the registration number EA 2. The lions measure approximately 1.20m high and 2.20m long. They are in a relaxed, naturalistic pose, lying on their sides with their heads turned to the side and their front paws crossed, rather than in the stiffer traditional pose of the

sphinx A sphinx ( ; , ; or sphinges ) is a mythical creature with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of an eagle. In Culture of Greece, Greek tradition, the sphinx is a treacherous and merciless being with the head of a woman, th ...

or lion, with its head facing forwards and paws extended to the front.

Reading

*Edwards, I.E.S. "The Prudhoe Lions, Liverpool" ''Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology'', 26, p. 3-9 *T.G.H. James and W.V. Davies, ''Egyptian sculpture'' (London, The British Museum Press, 1983) *A.P. Kozloff and B.M. Bryan, ''Egypt's dazzling sun: Amenhotep'' (Cleveland Museum of Art, 1992) *Ruffle, John, "The journeys of Lord Prudhoe and Major Orlando Felix in Egypt, Nubia and the Levant; 1826-29" ''Travellers in Egypt'' edited by Paul Starkey and Janet Starkey. London: I.B. Tauris, 1998, p. 75-84 *Ruffle, John, "Lord Prudhoe and his lions" ''Sudan & Nubia: the Sudan Archaeological Research Society Bulletin'' 2 (1998) p. 82-87 *Ruffle, John, "Lord Prudhoe and Major Felix: Hieroglyphiseurs Décidés" ''Egyptian Encounters'' (Cairo Papers in Social Science 23, no. 3 (2000)) *E.R. Russmann, ''Eternal Egypt: masterworks of'' (University of California Press, 2001) *N. Strudwick, ''Masterpieces of Ancient Egypt'', London 2006, pp. 158–9

References

External links

Sudan, Egypt and Nubia
web page for the gallery at the British Museum {{British Museum Ancient Egyptian sculptures in the British Museum Sculptures of ancient Egypt 14th-century BC works Sculptures of lions