Egyptian monoliths are presents from the past

The discovery of two giant statues in Egypt's sands evokes Percy Shelley's famous poem, Ozymandias.

The remnants of Egypt’s ancient civilisation have long fascinated humankind. The 19th century English poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, is said to have been inspired to write his sonnet ­Ozymandias by a fragment of a giant statue of the pharaoh Ramesses II that had been purchased by the British Museum.

Shelley speculated about “a shattered visage” left lying on the desert sand, near a pedestal with an inscription imploring observers to “Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” His point was the hubristic folly of leaders who think their glory immortal.

No doubt the pharaoh Amenhotep III, who died around 1352BC, also considered himself among the immortals. Two vast statues of him have long stood in the ancient city of Luxor. Now two more have been discovered – one of them rising 11.5 metres and weighing 250 tonnes – and been put on display.

As Shelley noted, “the lone and level sands stretch far away”, and as modern satellite imagery tells us, many more ancient artefacts await discovery beneath them.