CAIRO, Egypt: A landowner working his fields in northern Egypt noticed an odd stone covered in carvings, and the report he made to local authorities has turned his village into an active archaeological dig. Excavators have now raised the remains of two colossal royal statues believed to depict Ramses II, the pharaoh who ruled Egypt more than 3,000 years ago. Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced the finds this week.
The discovery happened in Behbeit el-Hagar, a village in the Gharbia governorate in the Nile Delta, after the homeowner alerted antiquities officials to the inscribed stone, People reported. An inspection team confirmed the stone was ancient, and the Supreme Council of Antiquities launched a full excavation that uncovered far more than anyone expected.
First out of the ground was a stone head about 5 feet 3 inches tall, showing Ramses II wearing the double crown that symbolized the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. The complete statue may have stood about 28 feet tall including its base, said Hisham El-Lithy, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
The team also found a second royal statue, about 7 feet 10 inches long in its surviving section, missing its legs and base but carved wearing the striped nemes headdress of an Egyptian ruler. Its face closely resembles the first statue’s, which is why researchers believe it may also portray Ramses II. Nearby lay a block of pink granite measuring about 4 feet 3 inches, inscribed with two of his royal titles, King of Upper and Lower Egypt and Son of Ra.
Turkiye Today identified the landowner as Khaled el-Shahat Khalil and reported the ministry’s Wednesday announcement. ARTnews pointed to the sharpest identification clue, an inscription on the first statue’s back pillar carrying one of the pharaoh’s five royal titles. The village sits beside the remains of a large temple dedicated to the goddess Isis, and researchers hope the statues will help map how the whole sacred site was laid out.
Chance finds have a way of rewriting local history, and Hypefresh has covered a run of them lately. A 3,800-year-old message from Moses uncovered in Egypt gave readers a similar jolt from the same country, while thousands of 200-million-year-old dinosaur footprints found in Italy showed how one spot on the ground can hide an entire vanished world. The Lithuanian farmer who unearthed a church bell buried for 82 years knows the exact feeling Khalil has now, standing over something the soil kept secret for centuries.
Excavation is continuing, and archaeologists are working out how the two statues, the inscribed block and the temple remains fit together. The ministry has not said whether any piece will go on public display. What stood at Behbeit el-Hagar, and when it fell, is still being read from stones a villager nearly walked past.
