byMichael Gwilliam
Published: Oct 14, 2026, 17:10
Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities
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A man working outside his home in Egypt stumbled across an ancient stone that led archaeologists to the remains of a giant statue of Ramses II, the Pharaoh who ruled over 3,000 years ago.
The discovery began in Behbeit El-Hagar, a village in Egypt’s Gharbia Governorate, when the resident found a stone block covered in inscriptions on his land.
He alerted local antiquities officials, who inspected the find before Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities launched an excavation. According to People, the team uncovered fragments of two enormous royal statues, including one identified as Ramses II.
It’s another accidental discovery to emerge this year, after a six-year-old boy found a 1,300-year-old sword during a school field trip in Norway.
As the Egyptian Gazette reported, the standout find was a stone head measuring approximately 5 feet, 3 inches tall. It depicts Ramses II wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt.
Using the head’s proportions, archaeologists estimated that the complete statue, including its base, could originally have stood approximately 28 feet tall. The discovery consists of surviving pieces, rather than an intact statue.
Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities
The excavation also revealed a section of a second royal statue measuring nearly eight feet. Its legs and base were missing, but its face remained clearly visible beneath a traditional royal headdress. Researchers believe it could also depict Ramses II.
A nearby pink granite block carried hieroglyphic inscriptions identifying the ruler as King of Upper and Lower Egypt and Son of Ra.
Known as Ramses the Great, the pharaoh ruled from approximately 1279 to 1213 BC. His reign included extensive construction of temples and monumental statues
