The top half of a statue of Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II has been unearthed in southern Egypt, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has revealed.
The discovery by an Egyptian-US mission completes the statue after the lower half was discovered in the same area, the Ashmunein region of Al Minya province, almost a century ago.
The top section, 3.8 metres tall, depicts Ramses II’s head, shoulders and upper torso.
The pharaoh is portrayed wearing the dual crown indicating his rule over both Egypt’s Upper and Lower kingdoms. A cobra, a symbol of royalty in ancient Egypt, can be seen at the front of the crown.
Preliminary scans of the limestone block have confirmed that it is part of the statue of Ramses II statue unearthed in 1930 by German archaeologist Gunther Roeder.
Once the two parts are joined, the statue is expected to stand seven metres, said Dr Bassem Gehad, head of the Egyptian team taking part in the excavation mission.
Ramses II, also known as Ramses the Great, was the third pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty of Egypt and ruled from 1,279 to 1,213 BC.
The Egyptian team, working under the authority of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, and with counterparts from the University of Colorado mission, began an excavation in Ashmunein last year to find a religious complex believed to date back to Egypt’s New Kingdom era (1550-1070 BC) before collapsing during Roman rule centuries later.
“Though we have not found the complex we were initially looking for, a statue of such importance is a sign that we are digging in the right place,” said Adel Okasha, an antiquities official who oversaw the dig.
He said more notable discoveries are expected.
The city of El Ashmunein, on the west bank of the Nile, was known in ancient Egypt as Khemnu and in the Greco-Roman era was the regional capital of Hermopolis Magna.
Dr Salima Ikram, a professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo, said the discovery was notable because "it completes the half found many, many years ago".
"Not only is it a wonderful opportunity to have a whole other massive statue of the famed king, it also adds to our general understanding and fills gaps in our data on the large corpus of Ramses II's statuary," Dr Ikram told The National.
"Through each discovery, we have been able to trace changes in the style during the course of his very long reign."
Statues of Ramses II, the longest-reigning pharaoh and one of ancient Egypt's most depicted figures, draw visitors to a number of the country's historical sites including the dual temples of Abu Simbel, in Egypt’s southernmost province of Aswan.
The four giant statues of Ramses II that flank the main entrance, each 20 metres tall, gained international fame in the 1960s during an operation to move the temples to higher ground to prevent them being submerged by Lake Nasser, the reservoir of the High Aswan Dam.
Thousands of tourists visit the temples to see the Sun light up a wall engraving of Ramses II in a small chamber inside twice a year. The alignment takes place on February 22 and October 22, said to be the dates of Ramses II's birthday and his coronation day, respectively.
Another statue of the Ramses II once stood in a busy square in central Cairo near its largest train station, both named after the pharaoh, before it was moved to be the centrepiece of the main hall in the Grand Egyptian Museum, a vast complex near the Pyramids of Giza, which has been under construction since 2002 and is nearing completion.
Ramses II’s mummy, along with the remains of 21 other ancient kings and queens, was transferred from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square in Cairo in 2021 in a grand parade that was covered by international media and renewed interest in Egyptian heritage worldwide.
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Title: Assistant dean of students and director of athletics
Favourite sport: soccer
Favourite team: Bayern Munich
Favourite player: Franz Beckenbauer
Favourite activity in Abu Dhabi: scuba diving in the Northern Emirates
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What is the FNC?
The Federal National Council is one of five federal authorities established by the UAE constitution. It held its first session on December 2, 1972, a year to the day after Federation.
It has 40 members, eight of whom are women. The members represent the UAE population through each of the emirates. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have eight members each, Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah six, and Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain have four.
They bring Emirati issues to the council for debate and put those concerns to ministers summoned for questioning.
The FNC’s main functions include passing, amending or rejecting federal draft laws, discussing international treaties and agreements, and offering recommendations on general subjects raised during sessions.
Federal draft laws must first pass through the FNC for recommendations when members can amend the laws to suit the needs of citizens. The draft laws are then forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration and approval.
Since 2006, half of the members have been elected by UAE citizens to serve four-year terms and the other half are appointed by the Ruler’s Courts of the seven emirates.
In the 2015 elections, 78 of the 252 candidates were women. Women also represented 48 per cent of all voters and 67 per cent of the voters were under the age of 40.
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The new speaker of Iraq’s parliament Mohammed Al Halbousi is the youngest person ever to serve in the role.
The 37-year-old was born in Al Garmah in Anbar and studied civil engineering in Baghdad before going into business. His development company Al Hadeed undertook reconstruction contracts rebuilding parts of Fallujah’s infrastructure.
He entered parliament in 2014 and served as a member of the human rights and finance committees until 2017. In August last year he was appointed governor of Anbar, a role in which he has struggled to secure funding to provide services in the war-damaged province and to secure the withdrawal of Shia militias. He relinquished the post when he was sworn in as a member of parliament on September 3.
He is a member of the Al Hal Sunni-based political party and the Sunni-led Coalition of Iraqi Forces, which is Iraq’s largest Sunni alliance with 37 seats from the May 12 election.
He maintains good relations with former Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki’s State of Law Coaliton, Hadi Al Amiri’s Badr Organisation and Iranian officials.
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Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
