A massive 3,000-year-old statue has been unearthed from a pit in Cairo.

A group of archaeologists has uncovered an enormous 3,000-year-old statue, believed to depict Ramses II, which the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities calls 'one of its most significant discoveries.'

Archaeologists from Egypt and Germany began extracting the 30-foot-tall quartzite statue in Matariya, Cairo, on Thursday, with state officials and media present.

The discovery marks the conclusion of a dig that started in 2012, led by Dietrich Raue of the University of Leipzig, who is overseeing the German team involved in the excavation.

'We thought this area had already been fully explored,' says Raue. 'We had found basalt bases in the ruined courtyard, but nothing of significance. We expected the pit to be featureless, so the discovery was a huge surprise.'

Khaled al-Anani, the Minister of Antiquities, who was present for the statue's unveiling, stated that the figure is most likely to represent Pharaoh Ramses II, also known as Ozymandias.

While no inscriptions directly identify the statue as Ramses II, said Mahmoud Afifi, head of Ancient Egyptian antiquities at the Ministry, its location near a temple dedicated to Ramses II suggests he is the most probable figure. However, Raue notes that although Ramses II surely placed the statue, it's still unclear who it truly depicts.

Much of the ancient Heliopolis temple complex, where the statue was found, was destroyed during the Greco-Roman era, with antiquities looted and sent to Alexandria or Europe. Other materials were repurposed as Cairo evolved in later periods.

Ramses II, known as the 'Great Ancestor' to his heirs, reigned for 66 years from 1279 to 1213 BC during Egypt’s 19th dynasty. He expanded his empire, conquering vast territories in modern-day Sudan and Syria.

His legacy reverberated through history, inspiring British poet Percy Bysshe Shelley to write the famous sonnet 'Ozymandias' in 1818, nearly 3,000 years later:

'Round the decay / Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare / The lone and level sands stretch far away,' Shelley wrote, envisioning a ruined statue of Ramses II. Yet, unlike the endless desert or the Valley of the Kings, this Ozymandias statue was found in a pit flooded with groundwater.

The Ministry of Antiquities has faced criticism on social media and from various news outlets for using a forklift to remove part of the statue from the excavation site.

Afifi explained that the head's considerable weight was a key factor, with Raue assuring that the statue was not harmed during the extraction process.

Archaeologists are still determining the best method to remove the statue's even larger torso, according to the Ministry.

The excavation has also revealed a 31-inch fragment of a life-sized limestone statue of Seti II, Ramses II’s grandson. The dig continues, and experts hope to unearth more parts of the Ozymandias statue for restoration.

'I’m fairly certain the hips and legs are still there,' says Raue. 'But the challenge is that we’re in the heart of the city, and the lower parts might be too close to the buildings. Excavating near the houses would be too risky, so we probably won’t recover the lower section.'

Raue told Dinogo that he is skeptical about the possibility of fully reconstructing the face, although pieces of the eyes, crown, and lips have been recovered.

The head and torso will be transported to the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, which is set to open in 2018.