British Museum Top 20 02-1 Colossal Bust of Ramesses II and Pete [6 of 30]
2. Ramesses II bust – Thebes, 1250BC, 267cm high. This fragment of the statue of Ramesses II (1279-1213 BC) was retrieved from the mortuary temple of Ramesses at Thebes by Giovanni Belzoni in 1816. The imminent arrival of the head in England in 1818 inspired the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley to write Ozymandias: My name is Ozymandias, king of kings. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains. Round the decay. Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare. The lone and level sands stretch far away.