CAIRO: Egyptian archaeologists have unearthed the upper part of a 3,000-year-old statue of the pharaoh Amenhotep III, believed to be the grandfather of the young King Tutankhamen, antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said on Saturday.
"The statue was found near the northern entrance of Amenhotep III’s temple and depicts the king sitting down on a throne with Amun," the chief deity, Hawass said.
The red-granite top half of the statue was discovered at the site of the Amenhotep III’s funerary temple in the southern city of Luxor, Hawass said.
The newly-discovered artifact which measures 130 cm (51 inches) in height and 95 cm (37 inches) in width is "fantastic … because of the details of the facial features," Hawass said.
Archaeologists believe the full statue is around three meters (nearly 10 feet) tall.
In recent years, a large quantity of red-granite statue pieces have been uncovered at Amenhotep III’s funerary temple at Kom Al-Hitan on Luxor’s west bank.
Amenhotep III ruled Egypt between 1390 and 1352 BC.
He was almost certainly the grandfather of Tutankhamen, according to the results of DNA tests and computerized tomography (CT) scans on the famed boy king’s mummy announced by scientists on Feb. 17.
A handout picture from the Supreme Council of Antiquities shows the unearthed statue of Amenhotep III believed to be the grandfather of King Tutankhamen. (Photo Courtesy of SCA)
