Archaeologists unearth Pharaonic statues in Egypt's Luxor

Archaeologists have discovered five complete Pharaonic statues and four statue heads in the Avenue of the Ram-Headed Sphinxes in Karnak in Egypt's Luxor, MENA news agency reported Monday.

The statues were in an astonishingly very good shape and had hieroglyphic inscriptions on them, MENA said, adding the new finding proved the importance of excavations at the site.

It, however, didn't give more details about the newly- discovered statues.

The avenue of ram-headed sphinxes led the visitor to the massive front of the first pylon of the Karnak Temple in the ancient city of Luxor, some 690 km away from the capital Cairo.

The huge Karnak Temple, covering an area of 1.2 square kilometers, has sanctuaries, huge columns, obelisks and even a sacred lake. Its main entrance is lined by the ram-headed sphinxes.

Built 3,000 years ago, the Karnak Temple is a vast open-air museum and the largest ancient religious site in the world, and is probably the second most visited ancient sites in Egypt, second only to the Giza Pyramids in western Cairo.