Where Is Colossal Bust of Ramesses II? Museum Location

Q: Where can I see the Younger Memnon?

The bust is at the British Museum in London. It arrived in 1817 and inspired Shelley's poem "Ozymandias" about the fallen glory of ancient kings.

Q: How heavy is the Younger Memnon bust?

The granite bust weighs 7.25 tons (about 16,000 pounds). Moving it from Thebes to the Nile required Giovanni Belzoni to build special wooden sledges and hire hundreds of workers.

Q: What poem did this statue inspire?

Shelley's "Ozymandias" (1818) describes a shattered statue in the desert. The poem references Ramesses II's Greek name and meditates on how even mighty empires crumble to dust.

Ancient Egyptian This colossal bust of Ramesses II weighs over seven tons and stands 267 centimeters tall, depicting the pharaoh with the classic nemes headdress and serene expression of Egyptian royal portraiture. The granite sculpture originally formed the upper portion of a seated statue at the Ramesseum, Ramesses II's mortuary temple in Thebes. A hole drilled into the right shoulder shows where ancient workers attempted to break the statue apart for transport.

Italian adventurer Giovanni Battista Belzoni removed the bust in 1816, an engineering feat that inspired Percy Bysshe Shelley's famous poem "Ozymandias." Belzoni used levers, rollers, and hundreds of workers to drag the massive fragment to the Nile for shipment to England. The Greek name "Memnon" came from classical visitors who mistakenly associated Ramesses with the mythical Ethiopian king.

The bust has anchored the Egyptian galleries at the British Museum since 1817, one of the first major Egyptian antiquities to reach Europe.

The bust is at the British Museum in London. It arrived in 1817 and inspired Shelley's poem "Ozymandias" about the fallen glory of ancient kings.

The granite bust weighs 7.25 tons (about 16,000 pounds). Moving it from Thebes to the Nile required Giovanni Belzoni to build special wooden sledges and hire hundreds of workers.

Ancient Greek travelers mistakenly identified Ramesses II as Memnon, a mythical Ethiopian king from the Trojan War. The name stuck even after scholars identified the actual pharaoh.

Shelley's "Ozymandias" (1818) describes a shattered statue in the desert. The poem references Ramesses II's Greek name and meditates on how even mighty empires crumble to dust.

Colossal Bust of Ramesses II

Details

Where to See It

The Artist

Colossal Bust of Ramesses Series by Ancient Egyptian (Unknown)

Colossal Bust of Ramesses II (The Younger Memnon)

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