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Ramesses II, the Younger Memnon

Egyptian sculptors, c. 1250 BC

The colossal head and shoulders of Ramesses II, carried from Thebes to London in 1816–1818.

See it in 3D The British Museum London

Ramesses II, the Younger Memnon, Egyptian sculptors
Photo: Unknown, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The upper part of a seated statue of Ramesses II from his mortuary temple at Thebes, the Ramesseum, cut from one block of granite with a darker and a lighter part, so his face is pink and his body grey.

In 1816 the strongman and explorer Giovanni Belzoni had it dragged on rollers to the Nile and shipped to London; it reached the British Museum in 1818. The news of it is said to have inspired Shelley’s sonnet Ozymandias, about a shattered statue of a forgotten king of kings. Stand before it in 3D ›

More in The British Museum

The Rosetta StoneScribes of Ptolemy V, 196 BC The Parthenon SculpturesWorkshop of Pheidias, c. 447–432 BC

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