Singing Colossi of Memnon and it’s history

(Imaginary artwork resembling the Colossi in ancient time before the damages, credit unknown)

Their singing and twittering filled the sky centuries ago until their voices stopped due to renovation works done by Roman Emperor Septimius Severus (193-211). Known as the singing statues or “The Vocal Memnon”, the Colossi of Memnon are two great seated stone statues representing King Amenhotep III, according to prominent historian and author Bassam El Shamaa’. Decorated with imagery of his mother, his wife, and the God Hapi, the statues are 18 meters high and 720 tons each, and both are carved from single blocks of sandstone, according to Greek researcher and author Joshua J. Mark. “They were constructed as guardians for Amenhotep III's mortuary complex, which once stood behind them,” Mark added in his article published on Ancient History Online Encyclopedia.

(true Images captured of the colossi, credit unknown)

Although the statues were dedicated to King Amenhotep III, they were known as the “Memnon Statues” or “Vocal Memnon”. The reason for this name is the mythical link between the statues and a number of Greek myths related to Agamemnon, Homer’s Iliad hero. In 27 B.C, a large earthquake reportedly shattered the northern colossus, collapsing it from the waist up and cracking the lower half. Following its rupture, the remaining lower half of this statue was then reputed to "sing" on various occasions – always within an hour or two of sunrise, usually right at dawn.

(Artwork Colossi of Memnon, Hubert Sattler (1817–1904), oil on canvas)

The Greek residents and tourists in Egypt believed that the statues’ sounds symbolized Agamemnon singing and oracles to his mother Eos, Goddess of Dawn.