The Broken Colossus of the King of Kings

In 1817, archaeologists dragged a massive granite bust of Pharaoh Ramesses II from the sands near Thebes, Egypt. It weighed over seven tons. The face, once painted and polished to inspire terror across the ancient world, was chipped and half-buried in dust. Percy Bysshe Shelley saw accounts of the discovery and wrote his famous sonnet about the inscription at the statue's base: "Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair."…