Granite head may depict Ramses II

Egypt’s antiquities council says archaeologists have unearthed a 3,000-year-old red granite head believed to portray the 19th Dynasty pharaoh Ramses II.

The Supreme Council of Antiquities says the discovery was made recently at Tell Basta, about 50 miles northeast of Cairo.

The council’s statement this week says the 30-inch-high head belonged to a colossal statue of Ramses II that once stood in the area. The site at Tell Basta was dedicated to the cat goddess Bastet and was an important center of the Old Kingdom until the end of the Roman Period.