CAIRO: A 3,400-year-old statue of Pharaoh Amenhotep III was unearthed in the southern Egyptian city of Luxor, the country's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) announced on Thursday. The statue is the latest discovery for Egypt and portrays the ancient king with a falcon-headed sun god. SCA Secretary-General Zahi Hawwas said in a statement that the statue was one of the “most beautiful” statues ever found recently in Amenhotep III's funerary temple, who had a large quantity of statues featuring him with a number of different ancient gods. Amenhotep III, who was believed to be the grandfather of the famed boy-pharaoh Tutankhamun, ruled in the 14th century B.C. in one of the most prosperous period of Egypt's New Kingdom and presided over a vast empire stretching from Nubia in the south to Syria in the north. Earlier this month, Egyptian archeologists found the upper part of a double statue of the Pharaoh sitting on his throne, with chief deity Amun. BM
