https://www.yahoo.com/news/science/articles/korean-egyptian-archaeologists-ancient-temple-075409447.html



Korean-Egyptian archaeological mission find blocks belonging to the Ramesseum

Korean, Egyptian archaeologists find ancient temple gate blocks during restoration work in Luxor

Miriam Sela-Eitam

Updated Sat, May 23, 2026 at 12:54 AM PDT

• Korean-Egyptian archaeological mission discovers blocks belonging to the Ramesseum, the second largest temple in Egypt, hidden under the sands.

The Ramesseum, located in a necropolis near Luxor, serves as a religious and political record of Pharoah Ramesses II’s reign. It is the second largest temple in Egypt.

Korean and Egyptian archaeologists working to restore the Ramesseum, one of the most significant funerary temples of ancient Egypt, have discovered several blocks belonging to one of the temple’s gates hidden under the sands.

The blocks and the surrounding area have been documented using 3D laster scanning.

The discovery, announced by the Egyptian Tourism and Antiquities Ministry earlier this week, comes as part of f a cooperation agreement signed in 2022 between Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities and the Korea National University of Cultural Heritage in South Korea.

Per the agreement, the restoration effort is set to be carried out in two phases over the course of a decade.

According to the ministry’s statement, the first phase of the restoration project, focused on restoring the temple’s First Pylon (gate), began in 2022 and is scheduled to conclude in 2027.

An aerial picture taken from a hot air balloon shows the Ramesseum temple in the southern Egyptian town of Luxor, September 10, 2017; illustrative. (credit: Khaled Desouki/AFP via Getty Images)

The pylon is approximately 32 meters long.

Egypt’s Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathy applauded the mission’s work during a recent visit to Luxor, affirming that it is “among the most prominent ongoing restoration projects” and and that it “represents a model of fruitful international cooperation in the field of heritage preservation.”

What is the Ramesseum?

The Ramesseum, located in the in a necropolisnear Luxor, serves as a religious and political record of Pharoah Ramesses II’s reign. It is the second largest temple in Egypt.

Pharaoh Ramesses II, who is also known as “Ramesses the Great”, is believed by many to have been the pharaoh in the biblical story of the Exodus.

Several of Ramesses’ victories are depicted on the temple’s walls, including the famed Battle of Kadesh that took place between the Egyptian and Hittite empires, as well as scenes of religious practices and funerary rituals.

In late April, the ministry revealed that a statue missing both its legs and base that was found at the Tel Faraon archaeological site near El Husseiniya along the Nile Delta, is believed to depict Ramesses II.

During Fathy's visit to area, he stopped at two restored ancient tombs that date back to the New Kingdom and contain scenes of daily life and funerary rituals.

The tombs that were opened are those of Rabuya and his son Samut from the 18th Dynasty, the first of the New Kingdom dynasties. Rabuya and Samut served as door keepers of the deity Amun.

"Today we are inaugurating two very important tombs that were discovered by chance in 2015," said Hisham El-Leithy, secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.

The tombs contain scenes of activities including agriculture, harvest, crafts, bread, pottery and wine production.

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ARCE-NC Lecture - Accessing Abydos: Excavating Bricks and Archives for Answers About Early Kingship

 

The American Research Center in Egypt, Northern California chapter, invites you to attend a lecture by Dr. Laurel Bestock, Brown University : Accessing Abydos Excavating Bricks and Archives for Answers About Early Kingship Sunday, June 14, 3 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time Redwood City Woman’s Club 149 Clinton Street, Redwood City (New venue!) This is an in-person lecture, not virtual. The lecture will not be recorded. Shunet el-Zebib | Khasekhemwy Monument https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Shunet_el-Zebib#/media/File:Khasekhemwy_Monument_(II).jpg (isawnyu, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons) About the Lecture: The site of Abydos is critical for understanding the rise of Egyptian kingship and the foundations of the pharaonic state. The earliest kings built their tombs far in the desert at Abydos, ringing them with sacrificial burials. But the largest monuments built by these kings were not tombs but temples, also at Abydos, and also often provided with sacrificial burials. Built much closer to the floodplain and settlement site, these structures, known to archaeologists as funerary enclosures, remain somewhat enigmatic. One such funerary enclosure still stands today, its mud-brick walls looming over the landscape some 4700 years after it was built. The standing monument is the last of the line; its predecessors are present only as foundations, no longer visible except when archaeologists clear the sand from them. Why are all earlier funerary enclosures mere stubs? Published explanations have focused on deliberate destruction, arguing that each building “died” as its king did, leaving only one standing at a time. However, recent work in the unpublished archives of the past 30 years of excavations held in New York suggest that neither the evidence nor its interpretation is nearly so straightforward. In this talk, we will look first at the history of archaeology at the Abydos funerary enclosures and what knowledge has been produced there. We will then dive into the excavation of an archive, the work being done to bring unpublished material to light, and how this is reshaping thoughts about early kingship. In doing so, we will confront important matters not only about the ancient past, but about how archaeologists work, and how exciting it can be to confront evidence that makes us change our minds.   About the Speaker: Dr. Laurel Bestock is the Joukowsky Family Associate Professor of Egyptology and Archaeology at Brown University, as well as a visiting professor and director of excavations at Abydos at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. A field archaeologist with longstanding interests in kingship and monumentality, she has directed projects at Abydos and at the Middle Kingdom fortress of Uronarti in the Sudan. She is part of a team that is developing Kiosk, archaeological recording software that is used by excavations around the world. Though a native Californian, Laurel left to pursue degrees in the cold way back in 1995 and has missed the West Coast ever since. In her spare time she spins yarn, and is preparing to bring her obsessions together in the classroom next semester by teaching a course on the Archaeology of Textiles. --------------------- Redwood City Woman’s Club location and parking: This month, we’re meeting on the Peninsula, in the Redwood City Woman’s Club, two blocks off Broadway in central Redwood City. The 1911 bungalow, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, dates from the year women won the vote in California and worked in groups like this one to secure their roles in public life. The club is fully ramped and wheelchair-friendly. For users of public transit, it’s walking distance from Caltrain. Best freeway access is from Highway 101’s Whipple Avenue exit. Parking is along the street, though given advance notice, we can set up a couple of disabled spots on the north side of the building. Useful links: Redwood City Woman's Club Google map of vicinity About Northern California ARCE: For more information, please visit https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernCaliforniaARCE, https://www.facebook.com/NorthernCaliforniaARCE, https://arce-nc.org, https://bsky.app/profile/khentiamentiu.bsky.social, and https://khentiamentiu.org. To join the chapter or renew your membership, please go to https://arce.org/membership/ and select "Berkeley, CA" as your chapter when you sign up.