French and Egyptian archaeologists have discovered 5 kings' statue heads from the time of the pharaohs in Egypt. The Egyptian minister of the antiquities Mohammad Ibrahim, announced that the heads found south of Luxor, were from Upper and Lower Egypt.
Each one of the findings has dimensions of 19.7″ (50 cm). It is believed that the statues are from the era of the Middle Kingdom, founded in 2000 BC.
Experts have yet to see if the heads belong to the headless statues that were found some years ago. Some time ago, Egyptian archaeologists discovered 2 pharaoh statues, over 3000 years old.
The statues were estimated to be from the 18th Dynasty Of the New Kingdom (1539-1075 BC). The discovery was made on the south coast of the Nile river in Luxor, 373 miles (600 km) south of Cairo.
According to a member of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, the findings are part of the current projects for protecting underground ancient temples and graves on the south coast of the Nile.
The two statues were found not far from the temple of Amenhotep III - father of the pharaoh Akhenaten and grandfather of Tutankhamun. One of the statues is among the largest ever discovered. It was made from granite and is 13 ft (4 m) tall.
Archaeologists found it broken into parts. The second one is also from granite, a bust of the pharaoh Amenhotep III.
Digging in the area continues in order to find more statues from this antique period. Another statue of Amenhotep III, divided into 7 pieces, was found near the city of Luxor, in the Temple of Kom el-Hitan. The head of the statue was not found during digging.
It is one of two statues, placed on the north entrance of the temple, which were likely damaged in an earthquake in the year 27 BC and were left buried under the earth.
The secretary of antique treasuries announced that the team of archaeologists is working on cleaning the sculpture, after which the 7 pieces will be put together, it will be restored and placed in the spot, where it once stood at the entrance of the temple.
The pharaoh Amenhotep III reigned in Egypt from 1390 to 1352 BC. He was the son of Thutmose IV and queen Mutemwiya.
