The Statue of Ramesses II is a colossal 3,200-year-old figure of

Ramesses II Ramesses II (sometimes written Ramses or Rameses) (; , , ; ), commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was an Pharaoh, Egyptian pharaoh. He was the third ruler of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Nineteenth Dynasty. Along with Thutmose III of th ...

, depicting him standing. It is 11 meters tall, made from 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 ...

, and weighs 83 tons.
The statue was discovered in 1820, broken into six pieces, at Mit Rahina near ancient

Memphis, Egypt Memphis (, ; Bohairic ; ), or Men-nefer, was the ancient capital of Inebu-hedj, the first Nome (Egypt), nome of Lower Egypt that was known as ''mḥw'' ("North"). Its ruins are located in the vicinity of the present-day village of Mit Rahina () ...

, where it lay for several decades. Early attempts at restoration

in situ is a Latin phrase meaning 'in place' or 'on site', derived from ' ('in') and ' ( ablative of ''situs'', ). The term typically refers to the examination or occurrence of a process within its original context, without relocation. The term is use ...

failed, but in 1955, Egyptian Prime Minister

Gamal Abdel Nasser Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian military officer and revolutionary who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 a ...

moved the fragments to the large Bab Al-Hadid Square in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

, 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. 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 The Giza Plateau () is a limestone plateau in Giza, Egypt, the site of the Fourth Dynasty Giza pyramid complex, which includes the pyramids of Pyramid of Khufu, Khufu, Pyramid of Khafre, Khafre and Pyramid of Menkaure, Menkaure, the Great Sphinx o ...

, anticipating a final move to the

Grand Egyptian Museum The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM; ''al-Matḥaf al-Maṣriyy al-Kabīr''), also known as the Giza Museum, is an archaeological museum in Giza, Egypt, about from the Giza pyramid complex. The Museum hosts over 100,000 artifacts from ancient E ...

(GEM) in

Giza Giza (; sometimes spelled ''Gizah, Gizeh, Geeza, Jiza''; , , ' ) is the third-largest city in Egypt by area after Cairo and Alexandria; and fourth-largest city in Africa by population after Kinshasa, Lagos, and Cairo. It is the capital of ...

. Criticized for its costs and concerns about pollution at the Giza location, 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. 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.

References

External links

Website of Dr. Zahi Hawass about the statueWebsite of BBC News about A stone carving of Ramesses II found at Abu Simbel
{{coord, 29.8713, N, 31.2164, E, source:wikidata, display=title 1882 archaeological discoveries Buildings and structures in Cairo Sculptures of ancient Egypt

Ramesses Ramesses or Ramses may refer to: Ancient Egypt Pharaohs of the nineteenth dynasty * Ramesses I, founder of the 19th Dynasty * Ramesses II, also called "Ramesses the Great" ** Prince Ramesses (prince), second son of Ramesses II ** Prince Rames ...

Granite sculptures Relocated ancient Egyptian monuments Cultural depictions of Ramesses II Archaeological discoveries in Egypt 13th-century BC works