Archaeologists Managed To Find The Top Of The James II Statue After The Discovery Of Its Lower A Century Ago

The findings of the top statue ofvises II. (Source: Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities)

JAKARTA - Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced the success of the discovery of the top statue of Egyptian Pharaohvis II in the south of the country.

The discovery by the mission of Egypt-United States completed the statue, after the bottom was found in the same area, namely the Ashmunein region in Al Minya Province, almost a century ago.

The top, which has a height of about 3.8 meters, depicts the head, shoulders and upper body ofvises II.

vis II, also known as Notch Agung, is the third Pharaoh of Egypt's 19th Dynasty and ruled from 1,279 to 1,213 BC.

Preliminary scanning of the limestone block has confirmed it was part of a statue ofvises II excavated in 1930 by German archaeologist Gunther Roeder.

After the two parts are put together, the statue is expected to stand as high as seven meters, said Dr Bassem Gehad, the head of the Egyptian team who participated in the excavation mission last month.

The Egyptian team, who worked under the authorities of the Purbakala Supreme Council, and with colleagues from the Colorado University mission, began excavations in Ashmunein last year to find a religious complex believed to date back to the era of the Egyptian New Kingdom (1550-1070 BC), before eventually collapsing during the Roman government centuries later.

"While we haven't found the complex we were originally looking for, the most important statue is a sign that we dug up in the right place," said Adel Okasha, the ministry official who oversees the excavation.

He added that it is hoped that there will be more important discoveries.

The city of El Ashmunein, located on the west bank of the Nile, was known as Khemnu during the ancient Egyptian and regional capital Hermopolis Magna, in the Greek-Romawi era.

Meanwhile, Professor of Energy Dr. Salima Ikram from American University, Cairo said, this discovery is very important because "this completes half of what was discovered years ago".

"This is not only an extraordinary opportunity to have another large statue of the famous king, but also add to our general understanding and fill the gap in our data on the big corpus of the James II statue," Dr. Ikram told The National.

"Through every discovery, we were able to track the style changes during his very long reign," he said.

Statues of James II, the longest-serving businessman and one of the most described figures in ancient Egypt, pulled visitors to a number of historical sites in the country, including the Abu Simbel double temples, in Egypt's southernmost province, Aswan.

Four giant statues ofvises II flanking the main entrance, as high as 20 meters each, rose to prominence in the international world in the 1960s during the operation of moving temples to higher ground so as not to be submerged by Lake Nasser, Aswan Tinggi Dam reservoir.

Thousands of tourists visit these temples to see the sun shining on the carvings of the walls ofvises II in a small room inside twice a year. The broadcast took place on February 22 and October 22, each of which was the birthday ofvisis II and itsmal day.

Another James II statue once stood in a crowded square in downtown Cairo near its largest train station, both of which were named after the firaun, before being moved to become the center of the main hall at the Grand Egyptian Museum, a large complex near the Pyramids of Giza, which has been built since 2002 and is nearing completion.

It is known, Pharaoh is described as wearing a double crown that marks his power over the kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt. A cobra, a symbol ofbangsinism in ancient Egypt, can be seen on the front of the crown.

The mummy ofvises II, along with the remains of 21 other ancient kings and queens, was moved from the Egyptian Museum at Tahrir Square in Cairo in 2021, in a grand parade covered by international media and revived interest in Egypt's legacy around the world.