Meritamen, 33 foot colossal statue in Akhmim, Egypt. beautiful colossal statue of the king’s daughter and consort, Meritamun, now re-erected in the centre of the area which has become an open-air museum, several metres below the modern ground level. The statue of Meritamun was a spectacular discovery, although when it was found lying face-down before the temple gateway, it was broken. Carved from limestone and now restored, the queen who stands 11m tall, wears a close-fitting pleated robe and is crowned with a modius (head-dress), decorated with serpents and the double-feathers of the ‘God’s Wife of Amun’. The museum also contains a beautiful Roman statue of Venus (Isis) as well as many stelae and architectural elements form the surrounding structures. There are also some large inscribed blocks from el-Amarna which were probably re-used in the later temple building. The ancient town of Ipu was situated at Akmim, on the east bank of the Nile opposite the town of Sohag. In pharaonic times it was also known as Khent-Min, being the cult centre of the god Min. It is thought that Tiye, the mother of Akhenaten, had extensive estates in the area, which flourished as the capital of the 9th Upper Egyptian nome in the Ptolemaic Period, when it was known as Khemis.
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 20:47:33 +0000