An archeological expedition has unearthed a wealth of artifacts and statuary in buried ruins. Egypt’s Culture Ministry says a team of Egyptian and European archaeologists has unearthed a large head made of red granite of an ancient pharaoh who ruled Egypt some 3,400 years ago.

© Hadeel Al-Shalchi • AP Sun., Feb. 28, 2010

CAIRO – Archaeologists have unearthed a massive red granite head of one Egypt’s most famous pharaohs who ruled nearly 3,400 years ago, the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities announced Sunday.

The head of Amenhotep III, which alone is about the height of a person, was dug out of the ruins of the pharaoh’s mortuary temple in the southern city of Luxor.

The leader of the expedition that discovered the head described it as the best preserved sculpture of Amenhotep III’s face found to date.

“Other statues have always had something broken: the tip of the nose, the face is eroded,” said Dr. Hourig Sourouzian, who has led the led the Egyptian-European expedition at the site since 1999. “But here, from the tip of the crown to the chin, it is so beautifully carved and polished, nothing is broken.”The head is part of a larger statue found….”

© Hadeel Al-Shalchi • AP – Sun., Feb. 28, 2010 • See the entire article HERE.