The Colossians of Memnon
The Colossians of Memnon are two huge statues that remain of the Death Temple of Amenhotep III on the west bank of the Nile near Luxor. The images are made of quartzite, about 3400 years ago, which probably came from the quarry in Giza. The images are about 18 meters high. Originally, the two statues stood at the gate of the temple in honor of Pharaoh Amenhotep III (ca. 1388-1351 BC). At the time, this temple was one of the largest with its 35 hectares, but was too close to the Nile and fell in decline.
In ancient times the colossians were erroneously assigned to the mythical Ethiopian king of Memnon. Memnon would have killed Antilochos in the Trojan War, but later killed by Achilles in revenge. That made the colossians already a tourist attraction for Greeks and Romans who were familiar with the Ilias of Homer. In 27 BC. one of the images was severely damaged by an earthquake. Since then, the image began to make a blurred, whistling sound at sunrise. This phenomenon was recorded by many historians, such as Strabo, Pausanias and Tacitus. A few travelers thought to recognize a sad song, and soon there was a colorful legend around this 'singing stone'. The scream would be of Memnon, whose mother Eos would have pleaded with Zeus to give Memnon immortality. As Eos was the goddess of the dawn, it fits into the picture of the image that began to scream at dawn.
How beautiful it may sound, it is more likely that there is a natural cause for the 'whistling stone'. Due to the difference between cold night and hot day, stoneware sprang on the fracture site every day. An end was made by Emperor Septimius Severus (193-211), who restored the images. Literature
25° 43′ 14″ NB, 32° 36′ 37″ OL Literature 25° 43′ 14″ NB, 32° 36′ 37″ OLwiki
