The true identity of the recently unearthed 3,000-year-old Pharaoh statue.

Egypt's Minister of Antiquities said on March 16 that parts from a 3,000-year-old pharaoh statue recently unearthed may belong to King Psamtek I, rather than Ramses II as previously reported.

According to the BBC, Minister Khaled el-Anani stated at a press conference that the statue is almost certainly that of Pharaoh Psamtek I, who ruled from 664 to 610 BC.

One important piece of evidence is the discovery by experts of five different names for King Psamtek carved on the ancient statue.

A fragment of a pharaoh's statue was found in Egypt on March 7th.

Minister Anani affirmed that the discovery of the statue was a significant find. "If it truly belonged to the pharaoh, then this is the largest statue from the period between 664 and 332 BC ever discovered in Egypt."

Previously, experts who unearthed the statue on March 7th believed it could be a statue of King Ramses II, who ruled about 600 years before Psamtek.

The reason is that the statue was discovered at the ruins of the temple of King Ramses II in the area that was once the city of Heliopolis, now located east of Cairo, Egypt.

The statue is made of quartzite, a type of rock known for its great hardness, resistance to weathering, and high compressive strength. Besides the lower part of the head, archaeologists also found half of the statue's torso, a crown, and a fragment of the right eye.

According to The Guardian, this discovery could be a boost for Egypt's tourism industry, which has been affected by the uprising that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak in 2011, although it remains the country's main source of foreign exchange.

According to Zing