THE COLOSSI OF MEMNON
This pair of time worn monoliths on the main road from the
river, standing, guard over the threshold of the Theban Necropolis are all that
remains of a temple built by Amenophis III around 2400 years ago. At 18 m high
and weighing 1000 tons, they have remained strong and steady despite years of a
change in their surrounding landscape. Surrounded by fields, the Nile waters
rose each year, until upriver dams ended the annual floods in 1964 to reach the
Colossi’s feet.
Legend has it that they could once sing; a whistling sound
documented by the ancient Greeks was probably as the statues’ stones , warmed
by the sun’s early morning rays, gradually expanded and rubbed against one
another along an existing crack. Outraged that they wouldn’t sing for him,
Roman Emperor Septimus Severus (193-211AD) repaired the crack and left them
silent.
A stele at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo poetically describes the temple
as being built from “white sandstone, with gold throughout, a floor covered
with silver, and doors covered with electrum’. It takes a visit to the Colossi
to truly understand the experience of this description.
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