CAIRO, March 13. /TASS/. Egyptian archeologists hoisted the torso of a huge statue of Pharaoh Ramses II from a muddy ditch in northeastern Cairo, a TASS correspondent reported on Monday.
The statue described by Egypt’s Minister of Antiquities Khaled al-Anani as "'one of the most important discoveries in recent history," is believed to be 3,000 years old.
This ancient treasure was unearthed by a team of Egyptian and German archeologists near the ruins of the ancient city of Heliopolis.
A part of the statue’s head was lifted Thursday with the help of excavators, which caused public outrage for the reckless treatment of this archeological artifact.
The torso was lifted with the help of a crane. Following its restoration, the statue of Ramses II will be exhibited at the Grand Egyptian Museum near the Giza Pyramids scheduled to open in 2018.
Ramses II, who ruled Egypt for 66 years and had 92 sons and 106 daughters, founded one of the country’s largest temples in Heliopolis, which was destroyed in Greco-Roman times.