'Impressive Find' Made in Mud of Cairo Slum

Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered a massive statue in a Cairo slum that may be of pharaoh Ramses II, one of the country's most famous ancient rulers, reports the AP. The colossus, whose head was pulled from mud and groundwater by a bulldozer, is around 26 feet high and was discovered by a German-Egyptian team. Egyptologist Khaled Nabil Osman said the statue is an "impressive find" and that the area is likely full of other buried antiquities. "It was the main cultural place of ancient Egypt, even the bible mentions it," he says. "The sad news is that the whole area needs to be cleaned up, the sewers and market should be moved."

Osman says that the massive head removed from the ground was made in the style that Ramses was depicted, and is likely him. Bolstering the theory: Reuters reports the find was made in what was Heliopolis, the place where ancient Egyptians believed the sun god resided. Ramses II founded the sun temple there, "lending weight" to the idea that the statue is of him. (More discoveries stories.)