Length: 129.500 cm (max.)
Gift of King George III
EA 9
Room 4: Egyptian sculpture
Colossal granite fist
From Memphis, Egypt
19th
Dynasty, reign of Ramesses II, about 1250 BC
Part of a statue, possibly from the Temple of Ptah at Memphis
This red granite fist was almost certainly part
of one of the colossal statues that Ramesses II (1279-1213 BC)
constructed. One of the statues stands outside the main railway
station in Cairo, while another (made of limestone) lies fallen at
the modern tourist site of Memphis. Other granite statues have been
located, but it is uncertain to which one this left fist belonged,
though it was said to have come from one of a pair that stood
outside the Temple of
The fist was
first noted by the scholars of the Napoleonic Expedition to Egypt,
and it came to the British Museum in 1802 as a result of the
E.F. Jomard (ed.), Description de LEgypte, vol. V (Paris, De l'imprimerie imperiale, 1809)
Shop Online
Rosetta stone coffee mug , £7.99