Colossi of Memnon

What are the Colossi of Memnon?

The Colossi of Memnon, on the western coast of Luxor, are some of the most well-known and beautiful buildings from the Pharaonic era. The two giant statues called The Colossi of Memnon are all left of Amenhotep III’s funeral complex near Medinet Habu.

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The Colossi of Memnon.

During the time that Amenhotep III was king (around 1386–1349 B.C. ), the two massive stone statues known as the colossi Memnon were ordered and built as vast statues of the king. The king is shown sitting on a throne with his hands on his thighs. He is wearing the Nemes headdress, which is typical of Egyptian kings. Although it has worn down, you can still see the outline of the protective cobra standing on his forehead.

Description of Colossi of Memnon

These behemoths are 14 meters tall and weigh a hefty 700 tonnes. The pedestals they stand on add almost 4 meters to their height and about 600 tonnes to their weight. So, when both colossi of Memnon are standing on their bases, they add up to a height of 18 meters, with the northern giant being a fraction of a meter taller. Considering how broken the heads and headdresses are, the whole thing may be close to 21 meters tall.
The statues were carved out of a piece of quartzite by men, which may have come from the Gebel el-Ahmar quarries outside of Cairo. They were put at the entrance to the tomb of Amenhotep III. This pharaoh of Egypt’s 18th dynasty ruled around 3,400 years ago.
About a kilometer long, this temple was a massive place of worship where the pharaoh was seen as a god on earth. The complex of temples was much bigger than Egypt’s famous Karnak.

The inscriptions on the side panels of each of The Colossi of Memnon are still there. The hieroglyphs with the pharaoh’s protocol stand out, as do the cartouches they include. The most exciting parts of the temple are the bas-reliefs of Hapi, the god of the Nile, and these pictures show what the Nile has given to Upper and Lower Egypt.
This is a common theme in pictures of pharaonic thrones, and it shows that the pharaoh was in charge of both of Egypt’s most important areas.
The Temple of Amenhotep III used to be an imposing building, but it hasn’t been taken care of well. It is almost gone because of earthquakes, reusing its materials, and being used as a quarry over a long period. And some of its construction is made of adobe, which has taken a lot of damage from the weather and floods in this area.
In 27 BC, an earthquake hurt the giants of Memnon. People then said that the sculptures “sang” every morning at sunrise. The cracks in the stones that make the sound has been found to cause the groaning or singing sound, which stopped when the damage was fixed.
Like many other structures, like the vast sphinx of Giza, the giants of Thebes inspired awe and fear, especially during the dark Middle Ages that plagued Egypt from the beginning of the 19th century onward.
People often think that the Mamluk forces shot the sculptures with cannons, which made their faces and limbs look strange. Especially since the 18th-century Egyptian Expeditions.