Colossi of Memnon

The Colossi of Memnon are two massive stone statues of Pharaoh Amenhotep III that have stood sentinel on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor for over 3,400 years. Each statue stands approximately 18 meters (60 feet) tall and weighs an estimated 720 tons, carved from single blocks of quartzite sandstone transported from quarries near modern-day Cairo — a distance of over 675 kilometers.

The Singing Statues

In ancient times, the northern statue became famous throughout the Greco-Roman world for producing a mysterious singing or whistling sound at dawn, believed to be the voice of the hero Memnon greeting his mother Eos, the goddess of dawn. The sound, likely caused by rising temperature and dew evaporation, ceased after the Romans repaired earthquake damage to the statue in 199 CE.

Visiting Information

The Colossi are freely accessible and are typically the first stop on any west bank tour. They originally stood at the entrance to Amenhotep III's mortuary temple, which was the largest ever built in Egypt but was largely destroyed by earthquakes and subsequent pharaohs quarrying its stones. Ongoing excavations continue to reveal more statues and fragments from this once-magnificent temple.