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A joint Egyptian-U.S. archaeological mission has uncovered the upper part of a huge statue of King Ramses II during excavations south of the Egyptian city of Minya, Egypt's tourism and antiquities ministry said on Monday.The limestone block is about 3.8 metres (12.5 feet) high and depicts a seated Ramses wearing a double crown and a headdress topped with a royal cobra, Bassem Jihad, head of the mission's Egyptian team, said in a statement.The upper part of the statue's back column shows hieroglyphic writings that glorify the king, one of ancient Egypt's most powerful pharaohs, he said.Also known as Ramses the...

Excavation work carried out by an American mission from New York University at the temple of Ramses II in Abydos has stumbled upon a menagerie of mummified animals that provides previously undocumented evidence of cultic worship through the ages.The most significant find at the site is over 2,000 mummified heads of rams from the Ptolemaic period along with other mummified ewes, dogs, wild goats, cows, gazelles and mongooses, said Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.The mummified remains, some still in their linen wrappings, were found stored in one of the recently discovered magazines within the temple’s northern...

The mummified remains of ancient Egypt's most powerful pharaoh have been used to reveal what he would have looked like at the height of his powers. Ramessess II's "handsome" face can be seen for the first time in 3,200 years thanks to the new scientific reconstruction. Using a 3D model of his skull to rebuild his features, scientists from Egypt and England initially worked together to create the pharaoh’s likeness when he died around 90 years old. They then reversed the ageing process...

To the south of the causeway of King Unas in Saqqara necropolis... the sarcophagus of Ptahemwia from the reign of King Ramses II... was discovered last year in Saqqara.Mostafa Waziry, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said Ptahemwia holds several titles, including the royal scribe, the great overseer of the cattle in the temple of Ramses II, the head of the treasury, and the one responsible for the offerings of all gods of Lower and Upper Egypt...The subterranean burial chamber opened on the west side of the shaft at the depth of 7 m. It led to a square...

Israeli archaeologists on Sunday announced the "once-in-a-lifetime" discovery of a burial cave from the time of ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Rameses II, filled with dozens of pottery pieces and bronze artifacts. The cave was uncovered on a beach Tuesday, when a mechanical digger working at the Palmahim national park hit its roof, with archaeologists using a ladder to descend into the spacious, man-made square cave. In a video released by the Israel Antiquities Authority, gobsmacked archaeologists shine flashlights on dozens of pottery vessels in a variety of forms and sizes, dating back to the reign of the ancient Egyptian king who...

During construction work at Palmachim National Park near Tel Aviv, a fallen rock reveals an ancient treasure trove from the era of the biblically notorious pharoah A team of archaeologists was essentially transported back in time when it entered an untouched 3,300-year-old cave at the Palmachim National Park, just south of Tel Aviv, last week. The vast array of discovered items date to the Late Bronze Age, close to or during the rein of the biblically notorious Ramses II. The cave was spotted when a rock shifted during the course of construction work and light was literally shed on an...

From axes to swords to chariots, see the weapons that helped make ancient Egyptian warriors formidable.The Egyptian military became one of the ancient world’s greatest fighting forces during the New Kingdom period (1550 B.C. - 1070 B.C.), but it did so using borrowed weapons technology. For much of its early history, Egypt relied on simple stone maces, wooden-tipped spears, axes and bows and arrows to fight off neighboring Nubian and Libyan tribesmen. Then came the Hyksos, an invading army from Syria that conquered Egypt around 1650 B.C. with vastly superior weapons like speedy chariots and powerful composite bows. During the...

Archaeologists in Egypt have uncovered the tomb of Batah-M-Woya, who was chief treasurer in the time of King Ramses II.The tomb is located in Saqqara, a huge necropolis south of Cairo, according to a statement from Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities published Saturday.Saqqara has been the site of a string of astonishing finds in recent years, and this latest discovery is the work of a team of archaeologists from Cairo University.In addition to the tomb of the former treasurer, the team also uncovered the tombs of a number of dignitaries, including a military leader called Hor Mohib.Around 20 miles...

The mission of the New York University-ISAW at the Temple of Ramses II in Abydos, led by Sameh Iskander, discovered the temple's foundation deposits during excavation work carried out at the temple's southwest corner. Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the deposits were buried in 1279 BC at the time of the construction ceremony. They include food offerings, plaques inscribed with Ramses II's throne name painted in blue or green, small copper construction tool models, pottery vessels decorated with hieratic inscriptions, and oval shaped quartzite grindstones. The mission also uncovered 10 large mud-brick storerooms attached to...

Dr. David Neiman explores the historicity of the Biblical accounts of Joseph and the Exodus from Egypt. Joseph rises to the position of "Tzafnat Pa'aneakh" after successfully helping the Pharaoh of Egypt with his economic plans. Under Joseph's guidance all land became the property of Pharaoh. A new Pharaoh comes to power who does not favor the Israelites. They are enslaved and forced to build the storage cities of Pithom and Ramses. These cities were arsenals for the armies of Egypt. Under Seti I and Ramses the II, Egypt was on the warpath. Ramses II was defeated at the battle...

CAIRO (Reuters) - A massive statue of one of Egypt's greatest pharaohs, Ramses II, rolled through the streets of Cairo to a new home near the Pyramids on Friday to escape the corrosive pollution of its former spot in a crowded transit hub. Tens of thousands of people lined the streets to bid farewell to the 3,200-year-old red granite statue, which weighs 83 tons and was wrapped in plastic and thick padding for the painstakingly slow 35 km (21 mile) journey, which took 10 hours. Only the face was visible. "We are going to miss you. Cairo will never be...

An archaeological mission from Egypt's Ain Shams University has completed the excavation of a shrine to King Ramses II discovered last year in Cairo's Matariya district. The head of the mission Mamdouh El-Damaty explains that the shrine was once used during festivals. The mission has also unearthed a collection of lintels, scarabs, amulets, clay pots and blocks engraved with hieroglyphic text. El-Damaty says the discovery is important because it is a unique shrine from the New Kingdom that was used for the Heb Sed festival, not only during the reign of King Ramses II but throughout the Ramesside period.

Dig unearths Mycenaean 'Homeric capital' April 16 2002 at 06:35PM Athens, Greece - An archaeologist thinks he may have found the ancient Mycenaean capital of Salamis, the island where one of the greatest recorded battles of antiquity took place. Archaeologist Yannos Lolos said on Tuesday that he found two buildings and uncovered several small hamlets scattered around the ancient acropolis of old Salamis, now known as Kanakia. The ancient town is on the south-western part of the island, located in the Saronic Gulf. Lolos, assistant professor of archaeology at the University of Ioannina in northern Greece, has been digging at...

The Egyptian-German Archaeological Mission to Matariya (Ministry of Antiquities of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Egyptian Museum University of Leipzig, University of Applied Sciences Mainz) has discovered new evidence for a sanctuary of Nectanebo I (380-363 BC) in the temple precinct of Heliopolis, according to Dr. Mahmoud Afify, head of the ancient Egyptian antiquities sector at the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities. Dr. Aiman Ashmawy, head of the Egyptian team at the Mission, said the number of blocks from a limited area proves that the excavation area is the site of the original building built of limestone reliefs and columns, with...

More than 3,200 years ago, life was abuzz in and around what is now this modern-day Israeli metropolis on the shimmering Mediterranean shore. To the north lay the mighty Hittite empire; to the south, Egypt was thriving under the reign of the great Pharaoh Ramses II. Cyprus was a copper emporium. Greece basked in the opulence of its elite Mycenaean culture, and Ugarit was a bustling port city on the Syrian coast. In the land of Canaan, city states like Hazor and Megiddo flourished under Egyptian hegemony. Vibrant trade along the coast of the eastern Mediterranean connected it all. Yet...

In the new movie, Exodus, director Ridley Scott decided to directly contravene possibly the most basic tenet of Judaism: that God is One and cannot be anthropomorphized. In the famous scene in which Moses stands near the burning bush and hears God talking to him, Scott decided to take liberties with the Biblical text and have an eleven-year-old boy, called Malak, stand near the bush and articulate the voice of God. Scott’s excuse for violating the sacred text? As he said to The Hollywood Reporter: "Sacred texts give no specific depiction of God, so for centuries artists and filmmakers have had to...

The hashtag #boycottexodusmovie has been trending on Twitter as posters express there anger over the film's casting of white actors as Egyptians Director Ridley Scott has been bullish about the issue of casting and said it was a business decision to hire white actors He claimed he wouldn't get financing if he hired 'Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such' The cast does includes a number of actors of color, although it is mainly in minors roles including as servants. Sir Ridley Scott has found himself embroiled in a race row after his latest film was branded ‘too white’. Twitter users are urging...

Christian Bale has said drones would be sent out after biblical character Moses had he been real and alive today. Bale, who plays Moses in Exodus: Of Gods and Kings, the forthcoming biblical epic directed by Ridley Scott, added that although Moses is depicted as a freedom fighter in the Bible, he is seen as a 'terrorist' by his enemies. The says he came to these conclusions while studying religious books and scriptures from different religions, including the Bible, the Torah and the Koran. Christian Bale said drones would be sent after 'terrorist' Moses had the character been real and...

Christian writer Brian Godawa dismissed recent comments made by actor Christian Bale characterizing the biblical Moses as "schizophrenic" and "barbaric" as ignorant bigotry. Bale plays Moses in the upcoming Ridley Scott film, "Exodus: Gods and Kings," which uses hi-tech visual effects to tell the story of how Moses frees 400,000 slaves from Egypt. It is slated for release in December. The Christian Post reported Sunday that Bale told a group of international reporters at the Four Seasons hotel in Los Angeles last month that Moses was mentally unbalanced. "I think the man was likely schizophrenic and was one of the...

Christian Bale has some novel interpretations of Moses, whom he portrays in the upcoming "Exodus: God and Kings." "I think the man was likely schizophrenic and was one of the most barbaric individuals that I ever read about in my life," Bale said. Hard on the heels of Noah, which took great liberties with the biblical tale, Exodus is drawing criticism from Christian websites.