Cairo – In a massive celebration, the Egyptian Minister of Antiquities Khaled al-Anany unveiled a huge statue of King Ramses II.

Dr. Ayman Hamed, one of the restoration project’s officials said that repairing the statue kicked off back in November 2016 – a team of Egyptian archeologists and restorers begun the process by collecting its parts and re-gathering them.

The restored statue was unveiled in an official event held to celebrate the World Heritage Day at Luxor Temple with the attendance of many figures from the archeology field. The Antiquities’ minister highlighted the importance of the event and said he deeply believed in the Egyptian team who accomplished its mission on the due time and delivered the restored statue in six months.

Ramses II is also known as the Greatest Ramses, the third Pharaoh among the 19th family’s rulers. He was considered as the most renowned and the strongest across the Pharaonic era.

Mostafa Waziri, head of Luxor Antiquities told that most probably, this statue was intentionally ruined in the fourth or fifth century A.D. – it was broken into 57 pieces and 60% of it was still there, which allowed archeologists to restore it, in accordance with the UNESCO’s regulations for restoration cases.

An archeology-related source revealed that the rest of the statue was discovered during excavation works made by an archaeology mission led by Dr. Mohammad Abdul Qader in the temple between 1958 and 1960.

Ayman Hamed said that the statue which is made of black granite – standing 11 metres tall and weighing 75 tonnes – features King Ramses II wearing a crown, with his wife Nefartary’s statue standing next him at the height of 1.5 meters.