CAIRO (Al Jazeera) – Egyptian authorities have arrested three people for trying to steal a millennia-old 10-tonne statue of Pharaoh Ramses II.
The defendants were caught in a quarry south of the city of Aswan with manual digging equipment and a crane, Egypt’s Public Prosecution announced on Facebook on Tuesday.
They are suspected of planning to lift the colossus out of the ground and to “excavate antiquities in the area”, the prosecutor’s office said, adding it had “ordered three defendants be held in custody for four days pending investigations” and asked the police to “quickly investigate others who were involved … in the crime”.
The Antiquities Authority in Aswan has proven the “antiquity [of the statue] and attributed it to Ramses II, with a weight of approximately 10 tonnes”, the statement added.
An investigation of the suspects’ mobile phones revealed that they had sent video clips of digging operations and of what appear to be ancient statues via social messaging apps.
Ramses II, one of the most famous pharaohs of the 19th dynasty, ruled for 67 years. He was known as a great warrior and prolific builder who ordered the construction of temples across Egypt.
Egypt has lost countless antiquities to looters, both individuals and foreign governments that colonized Egypt in the past.
Over the past decade, the country has recovered about 29,000 antiquities found to have been taken abroad through illegitimate means.