The sound of the northern support

This part of the story made the Pillars of Memnon famous far beyond Egypt. In 27 BC, the northern statue was damaged in a powerful earthquake. After this, something strange began to happen: At sunrise, travelers could hear a faint, singing note from the statue. The sound lasted only a few minutes, just as the morning sun hit the cracked stone. Greek and Roman visitors interpreted this as the voice of Memnon, a hero from Greek mythology who was killed in the Trojan War. According to legend, he greeted his mother, Eos, the dawn goddess, every day at sunrise. This is how the statues got their name. The sound disappeared when the Romans restored the statue in 199 AD, but the rumor lived on. On the pedestals you can still see inscriptions from ancient travelers who came here to hear the “song”. Today, the sound is gone, but the story of it lives on – a fascinating meeting of natural phenomenon, mythology and human imagination. Ibsen's Peer Gynt also travels to Egypt to find a deeper meaning outside himself, but he finds only emptiness and echoes, which reinforce his inner emptiness. The pillars are a symbol of a wisdom he is unable to grasp.