Statue of King Tut's grandfather unearthed

Washington, Nov 7 (ANI): Archaeologists have discovered a statue of Pharaoh Amenhotep III, believed to be the grandfather of King Tutankhamun, together with a falcon-headed sun god in Egypt's Luxor.

An Egyptian team from the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), led by Dr Zahi Hawass, found the upper half of a double statue featuring the powerful Egyptian pharaoh with the falcon-headed sun god Re-Horakhti, reports the Discovery News.

The upper part of the statue was unearthed at the site of the pharaoh's funerary temple on the west bank of Luxor.

"The Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project has unearthed more than 80 statues of the goddess Sekhmet during their excavations at the temple," SCA Secretary-General Hawass said in a statement.

He added that overwhelming amounts of statuary feature King Amenhotep III in company of different deities, such as Amun-Re, Re-Horakhti, Sobek and Sekhmet, the goddess of healing.

Moreover, last February a massive granite head also depicting Amenhotep III was dug out at the same site.

The ninth ruler of the Eighteenth Dynasty, Amenhotep III (about 1390-1352 B.C.), reigned for 38 years during a time when Egypt was at the height of prosperity and cultural development.

His mummy was found in 1898 in a tomb dubbed KV35 by French Egyptologist Victor Loret. (ANI)