Ramesseum housed a 1,000-ton (2 million lb) seated statue carved from a single granite piece — equal to 15 Abrams tanks! Transported 140 miles from Aswan, yet modern heavy-haul trucks max at 496 tons. How did ancient Egyptians manage this feat?
1,000-ton Ramesseum statue monolith transported 115 miles from Aswan quarry
EgyptArchitecture
Key facts
- The Ramesseum contains one of the largest stone monoliths ever cut in human history
- Carved from a single piece of granite, estimated at 1,000 tons (2 million pounds)
- Equivalent to approximately 15 Abrams tanks
- Transported at least 115 miles from the Aswan quarry in southern Egypt
- Was a seated statue that was somehow knocked over and shattered into many pieces
- This exceeds the payload capacity of modern heavy-haul trucks (496 tons max)
- Statue inspired Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem 'Ozymandias'
Site mentioned
Sources
Ramesseumen.wikipedia.org
The Ramesseum is the memorial temple (or mortuary temple) of Pharaoh Ramesses II ("Ramesses the Great"). It is located in the Theban Necropolis in Upper Egypt, ...
There is the fallen Ramses statue that is 1000 ton. ...news.ycombinator.com
There is the fallen Ramses statue that is 1000 ton. Supposedly moved 500 miles across desert couple of thousand years ago. There is this story about moving ...
The colossal statue of Ramesses IIbritishmuseum.org
Towering for 3000 years, the colossal statue of Ramesses II reveals how art, power and mortality met in ancient Egypt.
Ancient Ramses II Statue Moved to Grand Egyptian Museumnationalgeographic.com
Weighing in at 83 tons and more than 30 feet high, the granite sculpture depicting the 19th-Dynasty pharaoh was transported in a custom-made ...
The Ozymandias Colossus at the Ramesseumisac.uchicago.edu
... Ramesseum." On the right lies the toppled torso of a seated colossal statue of Ramesses II carved in red granite, called the Ozymandias colossus, originally ...
Was this story useful?
Keep exploring
Every site on this page sits on the globe, and the people who research them are on the Discord.
3D Globe · Sites by country · Story Archive · Research Library · Weekly Journal · Search
AI-generated text · images from the original sources · always verify with the sources.