The recently-discovered Psamtek I Statue arrived in the wee hours of Thursday 16/3/2017 at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

The state-run Nile News TV channel aired live the transfer of the statue's parts, which have been discovered by an Egyptian-German archaeological mission in the Cairo's district of Matareya.

Antiquities Minister Khaled el Annani and Tourism Minister Yehia Rashed were  set to hold an international press conference at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo at 6 pm on this occasion.

The Statue motorcade moved from Matareya at 1 am and arrived at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo at 4 am Thursday.

The transfer of the statue was carried out in cooperation between the Armed Forces and the Antiquities Ministry.

It took four hours to move the statue to protect its structure from any damage due to its heavy weight, of almost 8.5 tons.

The statue will be first restored at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo before being put on display at the Grand Egyptian Museum.

The bust of the statue, the lower part of the head, the crown, the right ear and a fragment of the right eye were found submerged in groundwater in Souk el Khamis in Matariya district.

Much of the temple complex of ancient Heliopolis, where the statue was found, was destroyed in the Greco-Roman period.

Psamtik I

Psamtik I, Psamtik also spelled Psammetichus (died 610 bce), governor, later king (reigned 664–610 bce) of ancient Egypt, who expelled the Assyrians from Egypt and reunited the country, founding its 26th dynasty.

According to the Greek historian Herodotus, he was one of 12 corulers and secured the aid of Greek mercenaries in order to become sole ruler. After an abortive rebellion by his vassals against the Assyrian ruler of Egypt in 663, Psamtik was unexpectedly restored as governor of Athribis, a city of the Nile River delta, by the Assyrian king. Later, rejecting his vassal status, he negotiated an alliance with Gyges, the king of Lydia in Asia Minor, which enabled him to subdue the other Assyrian princes and vassals in the delta (658–651). He established his capital at Sais, his native city, in the western delta, and proceeded to reform Egypt’s government. To remove the last vestiges of the rule of the kings of Kush—the African kingdom south of Egypt, which had persisted after the Assyrian raid of 663—he negotiated the adoption of his daughter Nitocris by the priestess of the Theban god Amon, thus securing control over the considerable wealth of the temples. Thebes remained under its own governor, an appointee of the Kushites, but Psamtik installed a new official as governor of the south and also created the post of administrator of Middle Egypt. In addition, he placed military garrisons along the Nile throughout Upper and Middle Egypt.