Giant Egyptian statues go on display in Paris | Cairo Post

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Giant Egyptian statues go on display in Paris

Aug. 21, 2015 17:39

A worker sets up a statue of an unnamed king dating from the Ptolemy era, made of pink granite and measuring 5 meters (16 feet) and weighing 5.5 tons in Paris, Friday Aug 21, 2015. The Institut du Monde Arabe (Arabic World Institute) opens on Sept. 8 2015 with its exhibition “Osiris, Egypt’s Sunken Mysteries”, an exhibition revealing one of the founding myths of ancient Egypt - AP

By AP

PARIS: Three giant Egyptian statues submerged in the Mediterranean for more than a millennium have gone on display at Paris’ Arab World Institute.

The museum erected the granite monuments Friday as a preview of its exhibition “Osiris: Mysteries of Submerged Egypt,” opening Sept. 8. The show features nearly 300 artifacts, most of them discovered in the underwater excavations of French marine archaeologist Frank Goddio.

Goddio oversaw the raising of statues of the Egyptian gods Osiris and Isis, and a hulking slab, known as a stele, that sat at the front of a temple. The statues are both nearly 20 feet (6 meters) tall and weigh 4-5 tons each. The stele is also 20 feet tall and weighs nearly 16 tons. The Maritime Museum of Alexandria normally houses the three artifacts.