The famed Colossi of Memnon still flank the entrance to the mortuary temple of Amenhotep III in Luxor, as seen in this March 27, 2008, photograph.

The colossi depict Amenhotep III seated on his throne with his hand on his right knee, a conventional position of Egyptian royal iconography.

The 59-foot-tall (21-meter-tall) quartzite statues were built to guard the ancient temple and were also meant to express the divinity of the ruler.

They are gods in their own right … and they act as intermediaries between gods and men, said W. Raymond Johnson, an Egyptologist at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago.

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