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Primary sourceSculpture

Younger Memnon

A colossal granite head and torso of Ramesses II from his mortuary temple, now in the British Museum, which inspired Shelley's 'Ozymandias'.

This colossal head depicts Ramesses II and became the best-known image of him after reaching London in 1818.

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Photograph of a broken granite statue bust of an Egyptian pharaoh with a striped nemes headdress, a braided false beard, and a calm, slight smile. Cracks run through the body. It stands in a museum hall.
Younger Memnon, colossal statue of Ramesses II. British Museum, London.

About this source

What it is

This is one of two giant granite statues that once stood at the Ramesseum, Ramesses II's mortuary temple at Thebes. It shows the pharaoh wearing the nemes headdress with a cobra diadem. The head and torso were removed from Egypt in the early 19th century by Giovanni Belzoni, working for British consul Henry Salt, and reached London in 1818. It is now in the British Museum.

Why it matters

Its arrival in Britain was a sensation and helped spark European interest in Egyptian art as fine art, not just curiosities. It also inspired a famous poetry contest between Percy Bysshe Shelley and Horace Smith, both writing poems called 'Ozymandias' about the statue's fallen grandeur.

Look closer

  • What does the calm expression on the statue suggest about how Ramesses wanted to be remembered?
  • Why do you think removing this statue caused such excitement in Britain?
  • What is lost when a statue like this is taken far from its original site?

This sculpture is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Ramses II (Ramses the Great) on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Two clay cuneiform tablets on a clear acrylic stand against a red background. The larger tablet is broken into several fragments, covered in dense wedge-shaped writing. A smaller tablet fragment sits at lower right, also inscribed.Document

Primary source

Egyptian–Hittite Peace Treaty

c. 1258 BCE

Sepia photograph of the facade of the Abu Simbel temple in Egypt, with four seated colossal statues of Ramesses II carved into the rock. A small standing man at lower left shows scale. A doorway lies between the middle statues, and hieroglyphs are carved across the upper wall.Photograph

Secondary source

Abu Simbel Temple Colossi

Pascal Sébah · 1875

Facade of the Great Temple at Abu Simbel carved into a sandstone cliff under a clear blue sky. Four seated colossal statues of a pharaoh flank the central doorway, with a sand-covered walkway leading up to the entrance.Artifact

Primary source

Abu Simbel

Ramesses II · c. 1273 BCE

Sepia photograph of the Abu Simbel temple facade in Egypt. A colossal seated stone statue of a pharaoh with a striped headdress dominates the right. Beside it stands a statue of a falcon-headed god wearing a sun disk. Relief carvings and hieroglyphs cover the wall, and a small seated man at the bottom gives scale. Caption reads Abou Simbel, Gd Temple, Le dieu Soleil Ra et Rhamses II, P. Sébah.Photograph

Secondary source

Facade Detail of Abu Simbel Showing Ramesses II and Ra

Pascal Sébah · 1875

Sepia photograph of the ruined Ramesseum temple at Luxor, Egypt. Four fallen-headed colossal seated statues stand before a sandstone gateway with carved hieroglyphs on its lintel. A broken statue lies in the foreground, and a small figure sits near the base of the statues. Desert and a column are visible on the left.Photograph

Secondary source

Ramesseum Colossi in Ruins

Pascal Sébah · c. 1875

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