A COLOSSAL statue of Tutankhamun's great grandfather has been unearthed in Luxor, Nevine El-Aref reports. The statue was found at the northern side of the mortuary temple of the 18th-Dynasty pharaoh Amenhotep III on the west bank at Luxor by an Egyptian excavation mission led by Zahi Hawass, the minister of state for antiquities affairs. The seven huge quartzite blocks that make up the 13-metre-high colossal statue of Amenhotep III were unearthed following seven months of excavations at the temple. The head has sill to be found, but the mission is continuing to excavate and hopes to locate its whereabouts. The blocks are currently undergoing restoration with a view to re-erecting the statue in its original position. Hawass pointed out that the statue was one of a pair that would once have flanked the northern entrance to the temple, which was damaged by a severe earthquake in 27 BC. Both statues were previously discovered and documented by Egyptian Egyptologist Labib Habachi and German Egyptologist Gerhard Haeny in the 1970s. The two Egyptologists recorded both statues but left them on site, buried in the sand. Archaeologist Abdel-Ghaffar Wagdi, the supervisor of the excavation, said that the new mission had also discovered two other statues, one depicting the god Thoth as a baboon and the other the lion- headed goddess, Sekhmet. The Sekhmet statue is formed of black granite and is 185cm tall and 74cm wide. Sekhmet statues have been found in large numbers at this temple, and one theory for this is that Amenhotep III suffered from ill health near the end of his reign and made offerings to this goddess for protection against his illness.
