5.0 on Tripadvisor Licensed by the Ministry of Tourism and AntiquitiesMinistry licensed guides On the river since 2011 Luxor and Aswan, every week
The Colossi of Memnon are two giant seated statues of Amenhotep III on Luxor’s west bank. They once guarded the entrance to his temple, and today they stand almost alone in the fields, a short stop on the west bank morning.
Four things to notice, by day and before sunrise.
Both statues show Amenhotep III seated on his throne, carved in quartzite in the fourteenth century BC. Each is more than 15 metres high.
The statues stood at the entrance to Amenhotep III’s temple, the largest of its kind, inside a wall 550 by 700 metres. Since 1998 an Egyptian-German mission has been excavating it and raising its fallen statues again.
In 27 or 26 BC an earthquake damaged one of the statues, and after that it made a sound at sunrise. Greek visitors linked it to Memnon, the hero of Troy, greeting his mother Eos, the dawn.
Visitors carved 107 inscriptions in Greek and Latin on the singing statue in the first three centuries AD. Among them are poems by Julia Balbilla, who came with the emperor Hadrian in November AD 130.
Swipe for more →
The silence. The sound stopped in the late second or third century AD, probably after Roman repairs to the statue, which are usually credited to the emperor Septimius Severus.
Two names. To the Egyptians these were statues of Amenhotep III. The name Memnon came from the Greeks, and at first it belonged only to the northern statue, the one that sang.
Amenhotep III built his temple on the west bank in the fourteenth century BC, with the two colossi at its entrance. Around 1200 BC an earthquake brought the temple down, and in later centuries much of its stone was quarried away. The colossi stayed, and in Roman times they drew visitors from across the empire.
The Colossi of Memnon are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis, listed in 1979.
Every cruise we sell stops at the Colossi of Memnon with a licensed Egyptologist.
Yes. The Colossi of Memnon are a stop on the west bank morning of every cruise we sell, together with the Valley of the Kings and the temple of Hatshepsut.
No. The Colossi of Memnon stand in the open by the road, and we stop to see them and take photos, with no ticket needed.
No. The sound stopped in Roman times, probably after repairs to the statue.
Greek visitors believed the singing statue was Memnon, a hero of the Trojan War, greeting his mother the dawn. The statues themselves show Amenhotep III.
Tell us your dates and we will send back two or three ships that fit, with real prices.
See also the Valley of the Kings and the temple of Hatshepsut, visited the same morning.
