Today the 39-foot tall statue of Ramesses II was moved to the Mit Rahina Museum in the Ancient Capital, Memphis. Memphis is near modern-day Cairo.

I asked a mover about how he felt about the statue. He told me, “It was hard work moving it to the museum.” Another mover told me, “It was amazing artwork.” I also asked a geologist what was it made of. He said, “It was made of red granite.”

I asked a mover about how they moved it to the museum. He said, “It was too big to move, so we had to cut it into 3 pieces to move it.” I was amazed. I also asked him how heavy it was. He said, “About 38 tons.” Now that’s a big and heavy statue!

In order to reduce the risk of damaging the statue while it is being delivered, they wrapped the parts in rubber. They delivered the parts in three separate trucks. It took 30 men to complete the task. The entire process took 3 months to complete.

The museum’s curator, Dr. Ahmed Basara, is extremely excited to be receiving this piece of Egyptian history. Dr. Ahmed is expecting at least 10,000 people to show up at the museum that day. In fact, an average of 13,000 people arrived at the museum to see it!