Colossal Statue of King Tutankhamun
Quartzite, pigment
New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, reign of Tutankhamun, ca. 1334 B.C.
Luxor, Medinet Habu, temple of Aye and Horemheb
Excavated by the Oriental Institute, 1930
OIM 1408

This colossal statue represents Tutankhamun, one of the most famous pharaohs of ancient Egypt. It portrays the king standing with his left foot advanced, a typical pose in ancient Egyptian sculpture. Tutankhamun wears a striped head cover (nemes) topped by the double crown which symbolizes his sovereignty over northern and southern Egypt. He also wears a beaded collar and a pleated kilt. A dagger with a falcon head - the symbol of the gods Horus and Re - is stuck in his waistband. The king grasps truncated cylinders that may represent document cases or scepters. Traces of feet on top of the base to the king's left indicate that a smaller scale statue of his wife once stood by his side. The colossal statue is seventeen feet, four inches high, making it the tallest ancient Egyptian statue in the Western Hemisphere. It weighs approximately 6 tons (12,000 pounds).

One of two nearly identical colossal images, this statue was excavated by the Oriental Institute from the ruins of an ancient temple built in western Thebes (modern Luxor). Because two such statues were excavated, the Egyptian government gave one of the pair to the Oriental Institute. The other statue is in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo.