Colossi of Memnon

The two seated figures of Amenhotep III have stood in the floodplain for 3,400 years, all that visibly remains of what was the largest mortuary temple ever built in Egypt — bigger than Karnak — before an earthquake and the annual inundation took it apart.

Each statue was cut from a single quartzite block and moved 675 kilometres from Cairo. Excavation of the temple behind them is ongoing and has produced hundreds of statues in the last two decades.

Built around 1350 BC. After an earthquake in 27 BC the northern colossus began emitting a sound at dawn, which Greek and Roman visitors interpreted as Memnon greeting his mother Eos. Roman repairs in 199 AD silenced it permanently.