The statues, 18m (59ft) high, which appear to watch over the route to the temples and tombs on the west bank at Luxor, come from the temple of the Pharaoh, who ruled from 1391 to 1353BC.

Relics had been under threat from irrigation work in nearby fields until the Armenian archaeologist Hourig Sourouzian started a project to preserve them. Four statues of Amenhotep, two sphinxes and 84 statues of the war goddess Sekhmet were found.