
Found: A Colossal Statue of Ramses II Hiding Under a Cairo Street - Mz
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ramses-ii-statue-found-cairo
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jbreckmckye
I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.

And on the pedestal these words appear:

'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings.

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

~~~
Zuider
A photo of the scene this poem describes:

[https://images.rapgenius.com/64983b09fb243b2e65d57134773315d...](https://images.rapgenius.com/64983b09fb243b2e65d57134773315db.450x281x1.jpg)

~~~
Luc
I'm not a sculptor but I'm pretty sure those legs never carried that massive
head. In fact I can tell by the pixels etc. etc.

Wikipedia has a different story, where he was inspired by the news of the
imminent arrival of this (without seeing it):
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias#/media/File:Statue_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias#/media/File:Statue_of_Ramesses_II_at_the_British_Museum.jpg)

~~~
Zuider
The legs probably came from a sitting statue like this:

[https://english-303-final.wikispaces.com/Historical+Content+...](https://english-303-final.wikispaces.com/Historical+Content+%26+Historical+Context+in+Ozymandias)

While it is true that Shelley was motivated to write the poem by the imminent
arrival in London of the Younger Memnon statue, the scene that the poem
describes is not consistent with that particular statue (which consists of an
upper torso) rather than a separate head and trunkless legs located in its
original desert setting.

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acomjean
"think it depicts Ramses II, Ozyamandias, the Great Ancestor—one of Egypt’s
most famous and celebrated pharaohs."

I was wondering if the Shelley Poem about Ozymandias was about this guy [1].
Except the sonnet talks about finding the civilization remains in the desert
vs under a road.

...And on the pedestal these words appear: 'My name is Ozymandias, king of
kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!' Nothing beside remains.
Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level
sands stretch far away

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias)

~~~
ginko
You don't need to wonder. Ramses II is who Percy Shelley based his poem on.

~~~
acomjean
Thanks.

I had to memorize that poem in grade school. Now I know it wasn't just a
fictional character. I always liked that one.

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itissid
I went to Egypt in 2015 its sad that the country is suffering due to
instability region. Was sad because for a large part of the country(especially
south of Cairo) the soul source of income was tourism which was dwindling.

I also learnt that when the Temple of Luxor was excavated a lot of people were
upset because they were evicted from where they lived. Such discoveries can
upset people's livelihood. So, I sort of hope they don't find a temple
there...:)

~~~
Ericson2314
The country is also suffering because of its state, whose ongoing policies
(unlike it's recent history) is not a function of regional events.

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sizzzzlerz
It makes you wonder what else is buried beneath the streets of cities built on
top of ancient ruins. Cairo, Alexandria, Rome, Mexico City, Athens. Cool
stuff, if you ask me.

~~~
toyg
If you ask contemporary Romans, for a lot of people it's just a huge hassle.
It slows down economic activity of all sorts - every time you dig, stuff comes
up, work is stopped, and lengthy procedures are started to assess what's there
etc etc... This, of course, if you are honest and have time to spare. Less
scrupulous individuals will simply loot what they can and keep digging, or
even smash everything to bits before anyone can notice.

Rome has one of the most underdeveloped subways among major capitals, simply
because digging anything is very difficult: as the article mentions, soil is
quite peculiar over there, and technically it's a city built over several
_hills_. Add the archeological element, and you might as well give up.

~~~
gtvwill
> Less scrupulous individuals will simply loot what they can and keep digging,
> or even smash everything to bits before anyone can notice.

Crikey, I have heard countless stories from farmers, old construction workers
and so on of coming across burial sites, ancient tools or dinosaur bones,
where they have just covered the stuff up, buried it further down another hole
or even destroyed it just because they had no care or knowledge of that stuff.

Some of the stories are pretty interesting (like caves with paintings of mega-
fauna or sites of ancient fish farming), but some are also horrifying (One old
bloke found a giant bone on his property while clearing scrub, he burnt it).

~~~
riffraff
My home town was an important Etruscan city, and still has a huge necropolis.

One of my grand-uncles told me that when he was a kid (early 20th century)
when they found ancient vases they used them for sling practice, it was only
later that people realized they had any value.

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moomin
This is way cool, and will undoubtedly make for a great exhibit. But an
important find? Unlikely. We know a _lot_ about Rameses 2, we've even got a
fair few giant statues of him (even bigger than this one).

~~~
dominotw
I think its in their interest to hype up every discovery to boost tourism
which has taken a hit past couple of years. You are right, I've read around 5
articles about this today but not a single one mentins what makes this find
particularly remarkable.

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swombat
Even violent authoritarian dictatorships need some foreign income from time to
time...

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settsu
I appreciate that Atlas Obscura delivers truly interesting topical content
almost entirely without affect or hyperbole.

The contrast against much of the writing found online in the past few years is
striking—and refreshing.

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tradersam
Pretty cool. I feel like it needs more than 2 pictures about the find, though.

~~~
Luc
Here's a few dozen:
[http://www.gettyimages.se/search/events/700018243?assettype=...](http://www.gettyimages.se/search/events/700018243?assettype=image&excludenudity=false&family=editorial&sort=best&phrase=#license)

~~~
tradersam
Thanks!

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coldtea
In pop culture, you might recall that Ozymandias was the name of the S05
finale of Breaking Bad (spoiler ahead).

It too, shows the decline of Walter's empire, and in the final scenes, he
falls down on his side in the desert in a scene like the one in the poem ("The
lone and level sands stretch far away").

