Colossal Head Statue of King Tut's Grandfather Dug Out in Luxor

A colossal head statue of King Tut's grandfather has been dug out in Luxor, Farouk Hosni, Egypt's Culture Minister, said Sunday.

Smoothly polished and perfectly preserved, the 2.5-meter (8-foot) head belonged to Amenhotep III, the pharaoh who was King Tutankhamun's grandfather, according to DNA tests revealed last week.

The ninth ruler of the Eighteenth Dynasty, Amenhotep III (1390-1352 B.C.), reigned for 38 year 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.

The nearly 3,400-year-old head has been discovered at the site of the pharaoh's funerary temple on the west bank of the Nile in Luxor by an Egyptian-European team of archaeologists. Eighty-four statues have been already unearthed at the site.

Demolished during the Nineteenth Dynasty, the temple was apparently the largest of its class ever built and was guarded by two (still standing) gigantic statues of the Pharaoh, known as the famous Colossi of Memnon.

The newly discovered head "is a masterpiece of highly artistic quality, and shows a portrait of the king with very fine youthful sculptured features," Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said in a statement.

According to Hourig Sourouzian, who has led the expedition at the site since 1999, the red granite head belongs to a large statue representing the king standing, with his hands crossed over his chest and holding the royal insignia.

"The ceremonial beard is broken under the chin but it may still lie under the rubble below. Over the past years, we have gathered a large quantity of red granite statue pieces… Parts of the body of the statue are presently in restoration," Sourouzian said.