Statue of Pharaoh Amenhotep III discovered

This video is called The Ancient World: Egypt (1951).

Another video used to say about itself:

During the reign of Amenhotep III, Egypt was the center for culture and learning in the ancient world. Egypt had reached dizzying heights, but it stood on the brink of a devastating fall. Amenhotep III’s son and successor, Amenophis IV, took the throne by storm, changed his name to Akhenaten and announced that the old gods of Egypt were dead. He moved his entire court and thousands of followers to the new capital city of Armana. By his side was Queen Nefertiti. Obsessed by his new religion, he lost sight of the empire. When Nefertiti died, his world fell apart. Akhenaten’s successor, Tutankhamun, was only 10 years old when he took the throne. By the time he was 19, all traces of Akhenaten and Nefertiti had been erased. With his death came the end of the great dynasty of the empire builders.

From the blog of archaeologist Zahi Hawass in Egypt:

New statue of Amenhotep III uncovered!

The upper part of a double limestone statue of king Amenhotep III (1410-1372 BC) was unearthed at Kom El-Hittan in the west bank of Luxor. Kom el-Hittan is the site of the temple of Amenhotep III, which was once the largest temple on Luxor’s west bank. The temple originally had two entrances: one on the eastern side where the Colossi of Memnon reside, and one at the northern side, where the double statue was located. The statue was found during a routine excavation carried out by an Egyptian team of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA).

Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosny reported that the statue depicts Amenhotep III seated on a throne accompanied by the Theban god, Amun. The king wears the double crown of Egypt, which is decorated with a uraeus.

Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the SCA, remarked that the statue is one of the best new finds in the area because of its expert craftsmanship, which reflect the skills of the ancient Egyptian artisans. Dr. Hawass pointed out that King Amenhotep III is well known thanks to the overwhelming amount of statuary, which feature him in groupings with different deities, such as Amun-Re, Re-Horakhti, Bastet and Sobek. The latter statue is now a masterpiece of the Luxor museum.

Since this new find is the third of such double statues to be discovered at the site of Kom el-Hittan, it is possible that a large cache for King Amenhotep III’s statuary may have been buried in the area.

See also here.

Update February 2012: here.