A huge ancient statue of the monkey god of wisdom, Thoth, has been discovered in Egypt, said the council of antiquities in Egypt on Tuesday. The statue is four metres (13 feet) tall and was found in four different pieces along with two others when workers were pushing the groundwater beneath Luxor to preserve the city’s pharaoh temples. The statues were discovered near the temple of Amenhotep III and dates back to the 18th dynasty.

"It is the first time that a statue of Thoth, depicting him as a monkey, of this magnitude has been discovered,” said Mansur Boraik, head of pharaonic antiquities in Luxor. Other statues discovered include the sky god Horus, depicted as a falcon, an alabaster statue base that is probably the base of one of Amenhotep III’s statues and a granite statue of the pharaoh Ramses III.