Colossi of Memnon

Colossi of Memnon are the most important monuments in Luxor, Overlooking a vast green area from a height of twenty meters. These statues stand amid the vast space as witnesses the location of a huge temple, which was built by King Amenhotep III, This temple has disappeared completely, leaving nothing but a plate of sandstone lying behind the statues and have been renovated recently.

King Amenhotep III established these two statues at the entrance of his funerary temple, by the beginning of the first century BC, after about 1,300 years, cracks occurred in some of their parts, and with the morning air crossing those cracks saturated with dew, it makes a roaring sound similar to singing prompting Greek history scholars who visited Egypt in the first century BC to claim that the statue is singing with Sunrise and write this strange phenomenon on the leg of the statue and its base.

Many people showed a great interest in this phenomenon, even the Roman emperor "Hadrian" and his wife "Epena" and spent several days next to the statue listening to it! Many great men and historians were keen on recording their names on the statue, as we see the eight names of the rulers of Egypt from the Romans.

As for the link between these two statues and the name of "Memnon", there is a Greek myth not devoid of humor stating that the statues were given their names after a great Ethiopian hero, who participated in the Trojan War, called "Memnon" and was killed by "Achilles", one of the Greek heroes of that war. They claimed that this hero who was murdered, was conversing with his mother every morning in a sad voice, and claimed also that the dew, which was falling at the time, is the tears of the bereaved mother. But fate wanted to put an end to the myths that hatched about these two statues, So when one of the Roman emperors repaired the cracks in the statue which put an end to the singing of the statue.

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