Antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said on Saturday that Egyptian archaeologists have unearthed part of a 3,000 year-old statue of the pharaoh Amenhotep III, which is thought to be the grandfather of the young King Tutankhamun.
"The statue was found near the northern entrance of Amenhotep III's temple and depicts the king sitting down on a throne with Amun, the chief deity," Hawass told reporters.
Hawass said that the red-granite top half of the statue was discovered at the site of the Amenhotep III's funerary temple at the southern city of Luxor.
Hawass said the newly discovered artifact - measuring 51 inches in height and 37 inches in width - is "fantastic… because of the details of the facial features." (Features which the officially released photo of the king are obscurred by shadows...)
Large quantities of red-granite statue pieces have been discovered at Amenhotep III's funerary temple at Kom al-Hitan on Luxor's west bank.
Amenhotep III ruled Egypt between 1390 and 1352 BC.
According to the results of DNA tests and computerized tomography scans, he was almost certainly the grandfather of Tutankhamun.