Drive By Statues

After the Valley of the Kings, Temple of Hatshepsut, and the Valley of the Queens, we stopped for five minutes at your typical Colossi in the desert, the Colossi of Memmon.*  (Yes, this is out of order in the blog, but it's only short stop, so I forgot it.)

It was a funerary temple of Amenhotep III, but has been all but completely destroyed, except for some rando stones and two majestic monolith colossi that stand 59 feet high.  You'll see their faces, and feet, are worse for the wear, but that doesn't mean they are not impressive in their own right.  

After all, when was the last time you carved a 59 foot colossi out of stone, much less two.  

The Greeks named the statues Memmon, after the Greek hero.  There is a lot of graffiti from passing travelers of yore.  Apparently there is a headless alabaster sphinx with a crocodile tail on grounds, but I didn't see it.

King Amenhotep.  If you look

at his left leg, you can see

the head of a small statue of

one of his wives peeking out. 

Look at how the Colossi dwarfs

the tourist right at the base.

Colossi buddies since 1350 BC.  Oh, they

quarrel occasionally, but they make up

quickly.  After 3500+ years, you

learn to get along.

A look back from the Nile to the mountains

that hide the Valley of the Kings, and the

Valley of the Queens.

*Some sources spell it the Colossi of Memnon.  I'm not sure which is right, but like Tommy Lee Jones in "The Fugitive," I don't care.