Colossi of Memnon

Description

The Colossi of Memnon were only two statues in what many have been the largest sculptural program ever undertaken in ancient Egypt. Standing 23 meters tall, each weighting a thousand tons, the Colossi were carved from blocks of quartzite taken from Quarries either near Giza or Gebel es-Silsieleh (scholars are not yet agreed on which)
They depict Amenhotep III with his mother Mutemwia (on the southern colossus) and his wife, Tiy (on the eastern), and one of his daughters. The chairs on which the king sit have relief carvings on their sides sowing Nile Gods joining together plants symbolizing Upper and Lower Egypt.

Two Colossi of Memnon, scated figures of king Amenhotep III that flanked the first pylon, and a large stela, originally one of a pair, that stood in the inner court. The Colossi alone were enough to convince early Greek and Roman travelers that the site had been a special place.  After an earthquake in 27 BC. Cracked the northern colossus, it emitted a bell-like sound each morning as temperature and humidity rose.

Greeks believed that this was the greeting of Memnon (a mythical African ruler killed in the Trojan War and made immortal by the god Zeus) to his mother, Eos goddess of the dawn. To hear this "song" was thought to bring good foryune. (The crying stopped when Septimus Severus patched cracks in the colossus in 199 AD. Greek and Roman visitors left graffiti on the Colossi boasting of hearing the voice of Memnon. The emperor Hadrian heard the Colossus sing on three different mornings-a sing, he believed, that the gods held him in especially high regard.

Ancient Egyptians called the southern colossus "Rulers of Rulers". Later travelerscalled the two of them " Shammy" and "Tammy" ( perhaps a mishearing of the Arabic words left and right). Local villagers today call them " El Colossat", or "El-Salamat (The site as hole today called Kom El hietan).