CAIRO; Archaeologists in Egypt have unveiled two new artefacts from antiquity, a rare statue of one of the country’s most famous pharaohs and a diminutive ancient sphinx.

Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities announced that a pink granite statue of celebrated ancient ruler Ramses II was found last week, describing the artefact as one of the rarest archaeological discoveries.

Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the three-and-a-half-foot statue was crafted in a style that ancient Egyptians used to portray and capture an individuals essential nature, adding that it was the first such statue to be found fashioned from granite.

A hieroglyphic inscription found on the back of the stone bore the name strong bull, a reference to the kings strength and vitality, he added.

The statue, caked in mud, was found on the property of a man arrested earlier this month for carrying out illegal excavations near the ancient pyramids of Giza, according to the ministry statement. It did not say how the statue came to be on the man’s property.

Its in very good condition, Niveen al-Areef, a spokeswoman for the antiquities ministry, said on Tuesday. We are now studying its importance and trying to determine its inscriptions.” Ramses II, also known as Ramses the Great, ruled Egypt for around 60 years, from 1279 BC to 1213 BC. He is credited with expanding ancient Egypt’s reach as far as modern Syria to the east and modern Sudan to the south.

Over the weekend, Egyptian archaeologists also unearthed a dwarf limestone sphinx from a ditch in the southern desert province of Minya.

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2019