The Memnon Colossi are two massive stone statues of Pharaoh Amenhotep III,
who ruled Egypt during the 18th Dynasty.
The statues are built of quartzite sandstone blocks mined at el-Gabal el-Ahmar (near modern-day Cairo)
and brought to Luxor overland for 675 kilometres.
The stones are too massive to have been brought upstream on the Nile as believed.
It’s possible that the blocks used by later Roman engineers to rebuild the northern colossus came from Edfu
(north of Aswan). The colossi stand 18 m (60 ft) tall and weigh an estimated 720 tonnes each, including the stone platforms on which they stand.
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