Fate of Ramses II debated
2001-02-27 14:51
Luxor - Egyptologists are debating whether to rebuild a giant statue of
Ramses II here, or leave it in ruins as testimony to 5th century
Christian monks who did their best to deface the granite monument.
A few kilometres from the Valley of the Kings on the west
bank of the Nile at Luxor, the 3 200-year-old remains of the
colossus lie within the pharoah's temple, itself the centrepiece of
the vast Ramesseum which also housed a court, a school, shops,
kitchens and priests' lodgings.
Only the head, torso and legs - lying fallen in the royal temple's first court along with more than 500 other fragments of varying sizes - remain of the 15 metre high stone pharoah which
once sat with both hands on his knees.
"We used to think it had fallen down in an earthquake around 27BC," explained Egyptologist Christian Leblanc of France's
National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) who has worked on
the Ramesseum for 12 years.
"But then proof was found that it had been cut up and pulled down in the Christian era by monks waging war against idolatry," said
the archaeologist who also spent 20 years researching the nearby
Valley of the Queens.
"The face was attacked, as the early C!Pians often did, and traces of hammering can be found all over the place, clearly showing that the destruction was willed," he told AFP.
The Ramesseum, built during the life of the pharoah Ramses II who reigned over Egypt for more than 60 years during the 13th century BC, also contains the remains of a church and has revealed several Coptic Christian crosses.
The future of the collapsed giant is posing dilemmas over the right course of archaeological action, problems of funding and whether or
not to add yet another monument to the numerous treasures of Luxor.
And the answers are not clear because "the statue's presence on the
ground constitutes an historic event, and bears witness to the
destructiveness of the Christians", Leblanc said.
Even if the idea of restoring the pharoah to his pedestal is
abandoned, conservation work will still be needed as the pink Aswan
granite, from which the colossus was carved in a single block, is
being slowly worn away.
Archaeologists at the Ramesseum are also giving priority to
restoring the temple's first pylon - two massive partially
collapsed walls either side of the entrance to the temple which are
currently out of bounds to visitors.
Once that work is completed, at a cost of over a million dollars,
and visitors enter the first court through the first pylon once
more, something will have to be done about the colossus which
blocks the way through to the temple's second court.
Another million dollars would be needed to put the jigsaw of Ramses
II back together and restore him to his original grandeur, Leblanc
said.
In the meantime, French and Egyptian Egyptologists are having to content themselves with a computer-simulated three-dimensional reconstruction statue with the help of specialists from
Insight, an Auckland-based American institute. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA