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Egyptian authorities have arrested three people who tried to steal a 10-ton statue of Pharaoh Ramesses II with a crane.
“The three defendants have been ordered to be detained for four days pending an investigation,” the prosecutor said in a statement on Tuesday. Cairo on the Nile.
According to a statement, police reported that “three people were arrested for possessing manual digging tools, heavy machinery and a crane” used to “lift the statues and excavate artifacts in the area”.
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The Aswan Archaeological Department “has proven the (statuary’s) antiquity and identified it as belonging to Ramesses II, weighing about 10 tons,” the statement added.
The prosecutor’s office ordered police to “promptly investigate any other persons associated with the suspected crime.”
One of the most famous pharaohs of the 19th Dynasty, Ramesses II ruled 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 approximately 29,000 antiquities illegally taken abroad.
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