Granite statue of Amun in the form of a ram protecting King Taharqa

From Temple T at Kawa, Sudan
25th Dynasty, 690-664 BC

Taharqa was the last major king of the Nubian Twenty-fifth Dynasty (about 747-656 BC). On at least one occasion he fled from Egypt into Nubia to escape the approach of the Assyrian armies who, led by King Ashurbanipal (reigned 669-631 BC), sacked Thebes in 663 BC. This sphinx came from a temple at Kawa in Nubia which Taharqa had built.

The ram is one of the animals sacred to Amun. This statue depicts Amun protecting King Taharqa, who stands between the front legs and below the animal's head.

Four sandstone bases for statues sit on the western approach to the temple. Figures of rams were discovered on two of them, one of which is in The British Museum and the other in the National Museum of Khartoum. Other temples of Amun, such as Karnak, have rams or ram-headed sphinxes at their entrances.

M.F. Laming Macadam, The temples of Kawa (Oxford, 1949 (vol. I) 1955 (vol. II))

S. Quirke and A.J. Spencer, The British Museum book of anc (London, The British Museum Press, 1992)