This statue has been around for thousands of years, it never suffered as much deterioration as much as in the last 50 years... You can guess what we Cairo citizens hold in our lungs and skins... Poor Ramses II and poor us!!

Ramses before the trip

At 10:30 PM, two and a half hours before moving, in the cab on my way to spend the night at a friend who lives next to Ramses Square..

We went 5 minutes late and when we arrived the crowd was cheering (and some crowd it was!) and the king had already started to move

Moving

Going....

Moving 2

Going ...

Ramses II is gone

Gone..

I actually thought it would be moved slower.. it seemed to have taken 15 minutes for this distance, but may be it was the excitement that made it seem so short..

More photos to come later of the crowd, the people on the 6th of October bridge and the funny stories we heard.. One guy was actually waving in the street and screaming "Maa el salama ya Ramsis!" (Goodbye Ramses!)