reassembled from about a hundred scattered pieces, subsequently recovered on the site, and reunited with one eye found in an official storeroom of the Ministry, the other brought back from abroad. The head, too fragile to be put on display on site, was transported to the Luxor Museum, where it is now shown facing a red granite head of Amenhotep III of same provenance (Egyptian Archaeology 39). On 20 February 2016, HE Mamdouh Eldamaty, a personal supporter of these projects, unveiled the monuments, calling them a triumph of conservation over neglect and vandalism. On the same day, Prof. Eldamaty also presided at the ceremony of handing over to the Ministry the site of the two standing colossi of Amenhotep III, newly raised at the North Gate of the temple precinct (Egyptian Archaeology 44 and 46) and under site management implemented by Nairy Hampikian.
• The author wishes to thank the Ministry of Antiquities for kind permission to work; HE Khaled El-Enany, Heads and directors of Antiquities: Mostafa Amin, Mahmoud Afifi, Elham Salah, Sanaa Ali, Samia Abdelaziz, Sultan Mohamed Eid, Mostafa Wazery, Talaat Abdel-Aziz, Mohamed Yahya, Adel Er fan, Mostafa Al-Saghir, Ahmed El-Arabi, Ezzeddine Kamal, Yahya Abdelalim, the inspectors Sayed Mohamed, Mahmoud Fawzy, Ezzat Abubakr, Abulhassan Mohamed and all of the team members: Rainer Stadelmann, Nairy Hampikian, Carmen López Roa, Myriam Seco Alvarez, Arkadi Karakhanyan, Ara Avagyan, Jürgen Osing, Miguel Angel Lopez Marcos, Elena Mora Ruedas, Maria Antonia Moreno, Armine Hayrapetyan, Benjamin Durand, Pauline Calassou, Antoine and Odile Chéné, Ruben Badalyan, Armine Harutyunyan, Dana Belohubkova, Ahmed Abdelgawad, Abdulrahman Nusair, Aisam Magdy, Somaia Osman, Tayeb Hasan, Ali Hassan, Ahmed Mohamed Ali ‘Abdulrazek’, Mohamed El-Azab Hakim, Mohamed Abdelbaset ‘Baree’, Hassan Demerdash, Mohamed Gad, Sayed Ali Hassan, Anne-Hélène Perrot, Renaud Pietri, Etemad Ahmed, Hana Hussein, and part time Marie Blot, Tara Draper Stumm, Bianca Madden. Around 290 workmen on site are headed by Rais Mohamed Ali El-Ayyat and the stone specialists by rais Mohamed Ali Ghassab. On behalf of the project, very warm thanks are addressed to the DAI for kind support and to our sponsors: l’Association des Amis des Colosses de Memnon with Farida Khelfa, Christian Louboutin and Henry Seydoux; Fondation Gandur pour l’Art; Memnon Verein; S. and B. Buchner; Horus Egyptology Society and Neil Stevenson; Chester f ield Association for the Study of Ancient Egypt; Asem Allam, E. and U. Schaub, Robert Bigler, Joann Fletcher, and Mercedes Benz Egypt. 40
Photo: The Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project
Raising of a royal statue at the south-eastern corner of the peristyle court.