Colossal statues, obelisk arrive at GEM from Egyptian Museum - Ancient Egypt - Heritage - Ahram Online

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Colossal statues, obelisk arrive at GEM from Egyptian Museum

A collection of four gigantic objects have arrived at the Grand Egyptian Museum for eventual display on the museum's grand staircase

Nevine El-Aref , Friday 20 Sep 2019

They include two rosy granite colossi of Senosert I, a 20-tonne red granite triad statue featuring Ramses II between deities Ptah and Sekhmet, and the top of a Hatshepsut obelisk, weighing 14 tonnes.

Altayeb Abbas, the GEM's director for archaeological affairs, said that the artefacts had been displayed in the garden of the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir.

The items were packed in special foam layers to absorb the vibrations from transport from the museum in central Cairo, said Eissa Zidan, executive director of restoration and transportation at the GEM.

The journey took four hours as the maximum speed of the vehicles was 7km per hour.

The huge GEM complex, which overlooks the Giza plateau, is scheduled to open in 2020.

It will contain over 100,000 artefacts, reflecting Egypt's past from prehistory through the Greek and Roman periods.

 

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