The True Origin of the 3,000-Year-Old Pharaoh Statue Just Excavated

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

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

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

Part of a pharaoh statue was found in Egypt on March 7.

Minister Anani affirmed that the discovery of the statue was an important discovery. "If it really belongs to the pharaoh, it is the largest statue from the period 664 to 332 BC ever discovered in Egypt."

Previously, after excavating the statue on March 7, experts determined that it could be a statue of King Ramses II, who ruled about 600 years before Psamtek.

The reason is that the statue was discovered in the ruins of the temple of King Ramses II in the area that was formerly the city of Heliopolis, today east of Cairo, Egypt.

The statue is made of quartzite. This type of stone is very hard, weather-resistant, and has high compressive strength. In addition to the lower part of the head, archaeologists also found half of the statue's body, crown, and a piece of the right eye.

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

According to Zing