Colossal ancient Egyptian statues arrive safely in British Museum - Ancient Egypt - Heritage - Ahram Online

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Colossal ancient Egyptian statues arrive safely in British Museum

The statues depicting the Egyptian god Hapy, King Ptolemy II and his sister Queen Arsinoe, are part of an international exhibition tour

Nevine El-Aref , Tuesday 12 Apr 2016

King Ptolemy II and his sister Arsinoe (Courtesy of the British Museum)

The British Museum has welcomed three giant statues depicting the Egyptian god Hapy, King Ptolemy II and his sister Queen Arsinoe, as part of an international exhibition tour.

Elham Salah, head of the Museums Department at the Ministry of Antiquities, told Ahram Online that statue of Hapy – the god of the Nile flood – is a 5.4-metre tall colossus carved in pink granite and was recovered from a seabed in 2001 by a French Egyptian mission led by Frank Goddio.

The colossus was found at the entrance of Amun-Gereb temple in the port of the sunken city of Thonies-Heracleion.

The statues depicting King Ptolemy II and his sister weigh almost 20 tonnes and are well-preserved.

God Hapy colossus (Courtesy of the British Museum)

The exhibition, Salah said, will be officially inaugurated on 19 May and will last until 27 November.

It will also include a collection of 300 artefacts recovered from the sunken cities of Thonis-Heracleion and Canopus, which sat at the mouth of the Nile where the Greek and Egyptian empires met.

"The British Museum is the second stop of this touring exhibition that will visit several cities in Europe and Japan," Salah said, adding that the first stop was the Arab World Institute in Paris.