admin Archaeologists have discovered broken pharaoh-sphinx statues in an ancient Egyptian sun temple.
Egyptian archaeologists have discovered broken ancient royal statues at a sun temple at Heliopolis, an archaeological site that was once a major city near present-day Cairo.
Stone carvings include descriptions of Ramses II (reigned circa 1279 BC to 1213 BC), Ramesses IX (reigned circa 1126 BC to 1108 BC), Horemheb (reigned circa 1323 BC to 1295 BC) ) and Psamtik II (reigned 595 BC to 589 BC), Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said in a statement issued on March 20.
The Temple of the Sun is found at several sites in Egypt and is dedicated to Ra, the Ancient Egyptian Sun God, but the Temple of the Sun at Heliopolis holds special significance. (Heliopolis is the Greek name; the Egyptian name is Iunu.)
According to ancient Egyptian belief, Heliopolis is where “the world was made, with the first sunrise,” excavation manager Dietrich Raue, director of the Cairo department, told Live Science in an email from German Archaeological Institute. “Here honors the royal connection with the creator and sun god,” says Raue, noting that the pharaohs built statues, memorials and other structures in Heliopolis to legitimize it. their rule and glorify the sun god.
Raue explains: “Serving the gods was one of the main duties of the ancient Egyptian kings, and consecrating statues was one of them. “Ideally no king of Egypt would reign without the sun god’s blessing.”
Raue said recently discovered fragments of the statue, showing the pharaohs’ heads on the sphinx, may have been placed in front of the entrance door or next to the obelisks at the sun temple. He added: “At some point in ancient times, the statues were destroyed and reused as building materials.
Live Science has reached out to scholars not involved in the excavation to gather their input. Massimiliano Nuzzolo, an Egyptologist at the Polish Academy of Sciences who studies a sun temple in Abu Ghurab, Egypt, said: “The rich statuary material found by the mission demonstrates the importance of the site’s enduring importance during the Pharaoh’s time. Live science in an email. The pharaoh-sphinx finds also reveal “the wish of the kings of the second and first millennia [BCE] to leave a visible sign of their worship of the sun god Ra at one of the key point of Egyptian civilization,” added Nuzzolo. .
Peter Brand, a history professor specializing in Egyptology at the University of Memphis, says there’s still a lot we don’t know about Heliopolis. For example, while Ramses II was a prominent pharaoh who expanded the Egyptian empire, it is unclear whether he rebuilt parts of this sun temple or continued to use an older temple.
Brand told Live Science in an email: “Archaeologists have only scratched the surface of this area. “Much of its rich and complex history over three millennia of Pharaoh’s history is patiently awaiting its discovery beneath the desert sands.”
