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101329 Pictures << Previous Picture | Next Picture >> Colossi of Memnon
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Unless otherwise stated, this image is the copyright of the submitter. Contact them for permission to reproduce it. |  | | Description | Large colosal statues of Amenhotep III (Father of Akhenaten). They were originaly carved out of one block but suffered greatly during the 27 BCE earthquake which leveled the Palace of Amenhotep II behind them and damaged many other antiquities in Egypt.
Memnon was a charachter in Homer's Illiad. The Romans though it was amusing to rename the colossi as one of them emited a sighing sound at sunrise on account of air excaping from a fissure, which reminded them of this myth. |
| Posted Comments: golux
(2012-12-30) | Glad to hear these are "large colosal" statues, there's nothing worse than a small colossal statue . . . | golux
(2012-12-30) | Strange that most descriptions say these were statues were each carved as one piece (not both "carved out of one block" as it says above) when all photographs and drawings show horizontal and vertical cracks in both, indicating they were assembled from separate blocks. After the site suffered major damage by earthquake, the right (northern) statue was reconstructed in the 2nd century by order of Septimius Severus and the reconstructed parts are quite clearly made in blocks, but even its original part has some sections misaligned with the rest, suggesting it may have all been made in separate pieces. |
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