Egyptian authorities announced Tuesday that they had arrested three people who had tried to steal a 10-tonne, 1,000-year-old statue of Pharaoh Ramses II using a crane.
The prosecution said in a statement that it had “ordered the detention of three defendants for four days pending investigation”, accusing them “of having attempted to steal a pharaonic statue” in the ancient southern city of Aswan, some 675 kilometers to the east. south of Cairo. , on the Nile.
stopped with a tow truck
According to the statement, police reported that “three people were arrested in possession of hand digging tools and heavy equipment, a crane,” which they had used in an attempt to “lift the statue and excavate the region’s antiquities.”
The Aswan Antiquities Authority has proven “the antiquity (of the statue) and attributes it to Ramses II, weighing around 10 tons,” the statement added.
The prosecutor’s office ordered police to “immediately investigate other persons involved with the suspects in the crime.”
Ramesses II, one of the most famous pharaohs of the 19th dynasty, reigned for 67 years. He was known as a great warrior and a prolific builder who ordered the construction of temples throughout Egypt. Over the past decade, Egypt has recovered around 29,000 antiquities that were smuggled abroad.
Source: BFM TV
