A broken-off hand and a portion of a right leg of a colossus statue were recently excavated at the second pylon of the mortuary temple of Amenhotep III, shown here in a March 27, 2008, photograph.

The massive likeness of the pharoah, a long-tenured 18th-dynasty king, had fallen on its right side and fragmented due to a powerful earthquake in the first century A.D., experts say.

The fragment was found unexpectedly as archaeologists were looking for pieces of another broken colossus, which stood nearby some 3,400 years ago.

Attached to this fragment, which had been deeply buried, archaeologists found the perfectly preserved statue of Queen Tiye, Amenhotep III's favorite wife. Depictions of her are found in a smaller scale by Amenhotep III's right leg on other colossus statues, including the Colossi of Memnon.

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