Colossi of Memnon

The Colossi of Memnon are two massive seated statues of Pharaoh Amenhotep III standing 18 meters tall on the Luxor West Bank in Egypt's Luxor Governorate, erected around 1350 BC to guard the entrance to his mortuary temple — the largest ever built in Egypt, of which almost nothing else survives above ground. Each statue is carved from a single block of quartzite sandstone quarried near Cairo and transported 700 km south. The statues depict Amenhotep III with his hands on his knees, wearing the double crown, flanked by smaller figures of his wife Tiye and mother Mutemwiya on the throne sides. During Roman times the northern statue became famous throughout the ancient world for emitting a musical humming sound at sunrise, attributed to the Greek hero Memnon singing to his mother Eos, goddess of dawn — a phenomenon likely caused by thermal expansion of the damaged stone after an earthquake in 27 BC. The sound ceased after Emperor Septimius Severus ordered restoration of the statue in 199 AD. Greek and Roman tourists carved graffiti inscriptions on the statues' legs, some still legible today. The site is free to visit and located directly on the West Bank road, making it a natural first or last stop on the West Bank circuit. Ongoing excavations of Amenhotep's mortuary temple behind the statues occasionally yield significant finds and parts of the excavation perimeter can be observed from the road. A quick visit of 15 to 30 minutes suffices.