- CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Archaeologists discovered a pharaonic sun
temple with large statues believed to be of King Ramses II under an outdoor
marketplace in Cairo, Egypt's antiquities chief said Sunday.
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- The partially uncovered site is the largest
sun temple ever found in the capital's Aim Shams and Matariya districts,
where the ancient city of Heliopolis - the center of pharaonic sun worship
- was located, Zahi Hawass told The Associated Press.
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- Among the artifacts was a pink granite
statue weighing 4 to 5 tons whose features "resemble those of Ramses
II," said Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
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- Also found was a 5-foot-high statue of
a seated figure with hieroglyphics that include three cartouches with the
name of Ramses II, and a 3-ton head of royal statue, the council said in
a statement.
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- The green pavement stones of the temple's
floor were also uncovered.
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- An Egyptian team working in cooperation
with the German Archaeological Mission in Egypt discovered the site under
the Souq al-Khamis, a popular market in eastern Cairo, Hawass said.
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- "The market has to be removed"
as archeologists excavate the entire site, Hawass said. "Other significant
discoveries might be waiting to be excavated now, and compensation will
be paid to the shop owners."
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- "We are planning to make the whole
area as a tourists and archaeological site, maybe after two years,"
he said.
-
- King Ramses II, who ruled Egypt for 66
years from 1270 to 1213 B.C., had erected monuments up and down the Nile
with records of his achievements, as well as building temples - including
Abu Simbel, erected near what is now Egypt's southern border.
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- Numerous temples to Egypt's sun gods
- particularly the chief god Ra - were built in ancient Heliopolis. But
little remains of what was once the ancient Egyptians' most sacred cities,
since much of the stone used in the temples was later plundered.
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- The area is now covered with residential
neighborhoods, close to a modern district called Heliopolis, in Egypt's
packed capital.
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