Archaeologists in Egypt recovered a stone head of Ramses II about 5 feet tall after a farmer alerted them to something unusual on his land. The pharaoh wears the double crown, a symbol of his rule over Upper and Lower Egypt.
The gilded wooden mask from the sarcophagus of pharaoh Amenemope, displayed at the opening of ‘Ramses and the Gold of the Pharaohs’ at the Grande Halle de la Villette in Paris on April 6, 2023. Photo by Anne-Christine Poujoulat / AFP via Getty Images.
The farmer, Khaled El-Shahat Khalil, works a plot in Behbeit El Hagar, a village in the Nile Delta. He noticed an ancient pink granite block, about 1.3 meters long, and contacted Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
A 100-tonne pink granite statue of Ramses II is transported past the Great Pyramids of Giza during its high-risk relocation from downtown Cairo on August 25, 2006. Photo by Khaled Desouki / AFP via Getty Images.
The ministry announced the find in mid-October 2026. The block bears two of Ramses II’s royal titles, “Nesw-Bity” (King of Upper and Lower Egypt) and “Sa-Ra” (Son of Ra).
Massive papyrus-capital columns of the Grand Colonnade at the Temple of Amun in Karnak, Thebes — built under Ramses II — photographed by Francis Frith around 1858. Photo by Francis Frith / Hulton Archive via Getty Images.
Digging around the block also turned up part of a second royal statue. The surviving piece measures about 2.4 meters, and its face is well preserved. Archaeologists see a resemblance to Ramses II, but they’re still working to identify it.
A visitor leans in to examine a limestone shrine figure while a large granite bust of Ramses II looms in the background at the newly reopened Egyptian Sculpture Gallery of the British Museum, September 9, 1981. Photo by Keystone / Hulton Archive via Getty Images.
Hisham El-Leithy, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the size of the Ramses II head suggests the original statue may have stood roughly 28 feet tall. The ministry says work on the farmer’s land will continue.
Rebecca is a writer who loves sharing her life lessons through storytelling. She is the author of Let Go, Trust God, Become Who You Were Meant To Be and is also working on a series of devotional books.
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