Head of Thutmosis III statue found near Luxor

The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced on Sunday that the head of the statue of Thutmosis III, one of the main founders of the “The Age of the Empire” (1567 BC - 1085 BC), was discovered in southern Egypt.

View of the Temple of Armant west of Luxor 
[Credit: Ahram Online]

Tuthmosis III was the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. He ruled from 1482 BC to 1450 BC, when the Egyptian Empire extended to the Euphrates and to the north of the Levant. He carried many titles, of which was the title of “The First Emperor in History.”

Minister of Antiquities Mamdouh Al-Damaty said in a statement that the mission of the French Archaeological Institute, in collaboration with the Ministry of Antiquities, discovered the head of the statue in the Temple of Armant west of Luxor, also called the Temple of Montu the god of war. It dates back to the era of Tuthmosis III and Queen Hatshepsut, and was rebuilt in the Ptolemaic period.

The French mission had last year also discovered in the temple five heads of statues and a statue of a priest.

Three of the five heads of statues discovered last year by the French missions 
at the Temple of Armant [Credit: Ahram Online]

The statement said that the Egyptian Museum in downtown Cairo will hold a special exhibition for all the pieces that were discovered.

But he statement did not give details on the size of the head or the type of its stone.

Archaeologist Abdel Halim Nour Eddin said that discovering the head of the statue in this place proves that God Montu was strongly linked to Thebes just like God Amun.

He added that the statues of Tuthmosis are smaller than those of Amenhotep III and Ramses II because he was busy fighting wars. “He was the greatest military figure in the history of Egypt and the first to develop a right and left regiment for the army,” he explained. “His military campaigns were accompanied by scientific missions to document foreign countries.”

Source: Reuters [November 25, 2014]