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Archaeologists working under difficult conditions in Cairo have discovered an ancient statue submerged in mud.


A joint German-Egyptian research team found the 8-meter (26-foot) quartzite statue beneath the water level in a Cairo slum and suggests that it depicts Ramses II, 

The team was working at what was once Heliopolis, one of the oldest cities in ancient Egypt and the cult center for the sun god.


Khaled al-Anani, Egypt's antiquities minister, posted 

 that one of the researchers who found the statue called it "one of the most important archaeological discoveries."


Anani also spoke to Reuters at the site of the statue's unveiling. Here's more from the wire service:

In addition to the massive statue, researchers also found part of a life-size limestone statue of Ramses II's grandson, Pharaoh Seti II, Reuters says.

The identification of the newly discovered colossus as the famous Ramses II is not yet confirmed, as Anani explained on Facebook:


Ashmawy and Dietrich Raue, of the University of Leipzig, have been working in ancient Heliopolis for more than a decade under trying conditions, as the American Research Center in Egypt 

As of 2015, ARCE explained, the archaeological items in Heliopolis were submerged in 1 1/2 to 3 feet of water — a "most challenging environment" for archaeologists to work in, ARCE writes.

The discovery of a forgotten, submerged statue of Ramses II brings to mind one of the most famous poems in English literature — albeit substituting muck for desert sands.

Ramses II was known to the Greeks as Ozymandias. Today, that name is most familiar thanks to a sonnet on hubris and the implacable passage of time, by Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley:


That poem is widely believed to have been inspired by a broken statue of Ramses II that is now, like many priceless Egyptian artifacts, in 

The newly discovered statue won't be traveling nearly so far. Once restored and its identity confirmed, it may be placed at the entrance of the Grand Egyptian Museum, which is expected to open in Cairo in 2018.

NPR's Merrit Kennedy contributed to this report. 

Lifestyle

Archaeologists suspect that the damaged statue, more than 25 feet tall, depicts Ramses II -- aka Ozymandias. One of English literature's most famous poems describes a broken, forgotten statue of him.

Massive ancient statue discovered submerged in mud in Cairo

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