A giant statue of Pharaoh Ramses II will be moved next month from a congested square in downtown Cairo to a more serene home near the Great Pyramids in a bid to save it from corrosive pollution, Egypt's antiquities chief said Monday.

Exhaust fumes from trains, cars and buses, as well as subway vibrations, are damaging the more than 3,200-year-old granite statue at Ramses Square, its home since the early 1950s, when it was taken from a temple at the site of the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis.

The 125-ton statue — a popular feature on postcards and guide books — will become part of a new museum about a mile from the pyramids.

"We have to move that statue," antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said.

Contractors plan to transport a replica next week, as a test. If all goes well, the real thing will make its way through the sprawling city Aug. 25 [2006]...

Egypt to move famous Ramses statue in Cairo, Anna Johnson, AP via USA Today, New York, USA, July 24, 2006.

cf. Archaeologists tackle Ramses statue transfer, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, July 24, 2006.