Massive statue of Pharaoh Taharqa discovered deep in Sudan

When you think of statues of Pharaohs your mind goes directly to Egypt. However, a few hundred years before Christ, the Egyptian empire stretched to many other countries including Nubia, which is today located in Sudan, south of Egypt.

All known statues found of Pharaohs were restricted to the area of Egypt until now where a huge one tonne statue of Pharaoh Taharqa of the 25 ^th dynasty was found in Sudan.

Taharqa ruled in 690 BC, an era when most of the Pharaohs were Nubians, since Nubia conquered Egypt for about 150 years. As we have mentioned in a previous article, archaeologists suggest that Nubian kings tried to incorporate in their traditions the Egyptian culture and customs which included the building of Pyramids as tombs for the Royals.

During Taharqa’s reign, the Assyrians forced him to withdraw back into Nubia, losing Egypt (which was later retaken by his successors). The statue of Taharqa was found during a recent excavation at Dangeil in Sudan and it is the first time that a Pharaoh statue has been found so far south of Egypt, making it an important discovery. Moreover, it indicates that the city of Dangeil held some significance and was perhaps even a ‘Royal city’.

The statue was made of granite and it was about 2.6 meters high, but it was intentionally smashed into several pieces, for an unknown reason. Now the interesting thing is that the nearest granite quarry is hundreds of kilometres up the Nile making the trip to bring the statue to Dangeil a multi-day trip, further emphasising the importance and significance of Taharqa and Dangeil at the same time.

Further excavations in the area will throw more light into Nubia and its relationship to Egypt.

By John Black