32/50.- Luxor, Valley of the Kings, Memnon colossi

These huge statues (19.5m), are the only part of the ancient mortuary temple built in Thebes by Amenhotep III (18th dyn) that remains today. Several floods have wiped out the other ruins of this temple. Only the soil remains.

These statues where called the colossi of Memnon in Greek times, when they decided that the colossi represented their hero, Memnon. He was a king of Ethiopia son of the dawn god eos, who died in hands of achilles.

After an earthquake in 30 BC, one of the statues produced a musical sound under certain weather conditions. Egyptians thought this sound came from the gods, and Greeks thought it was Memnon's voice. Unfortunately a Roman emperor repaired the damaged statue, and since then the sound has never been heard again.

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