Statues around the world stand for honoring great personalities and important events. In Africa, statues are just one of the many ways used to express art and value for culture and individuals.
Some of them have enough heights to become the main attraction of the cities.
African Renaissance Monument, Senegal- 161 feet
The bronze statue stands on top of one of the twin hills of Collines des Mamelles, outside Dakar, as the tallest statue in Africa. It was designed by the Senegalese architect, Pierre Goudiaby and was built by a North Korean company and completed in 2010.
The Great Sphinx, Egypt- 66 feet
It is an immense stone sculpture of a creature with the body of a lion and the head of a human. It still remains the largest structure created from a single piece of stone. The greatest monumental sculpture in the ancient world, it is carved out of a single ridge of limestone 240 feet (73 meters) long and 66 feet (20 meters) high.
The face of the Sphinx is generally believed to represent the Pharoah Khafre.
Colossi of Memmon, Egypt- 60 feet
The Colossi of Memnon are two massive stone statues of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III, who reigned in Egypt during Dynasty XVIII (18th Dynasty).
Located at the West Bank directly across the Nile, the statues have been standing in the Theban Necropolis for the past 3,400 years.
Queen Moremi Statue of Liberty, Nigeria- 42 feet
Queen Moremi is revered by the Yoruba people as an epitome of selflessness, bravery and wisdom. She has been immortalized in several ways with books about her, public places named after her.
The statue was indigenously constructed by a team of about 200 Nigerian youths with materials sourced locally from the 774 local government areas in Nigeria and was commissioned by the Ooni of Ile Ife, Oba Ogunwusi in 2016.
Statue of Ramessess II, Egypt- 36 feet
The Statue of Ramesses II is a 3,200-year-old figure of Ramesses the second standing. It was discovered broken in 58 pieces by an archaeological team, led by Mohamed Abdel-Qader in 1820 and previous attempts to restore it to original height proved unsuccessful until 1955.
Nelson Mandela Statue, South Africa- 29 feet
The bronze statue was constructed in honour of the late former South African president and anti-apartheid activist, Nelson Mandela. The nine-metre-tall bronze statue which cost an estimate of R8-million, was created by South African sculptors Andre Prinsloo and Ruhan Janse van Vuuren and unveiled on 16 December 2013, the Day of Reconciliation at the Union Buildings.
Jesus de Greatest, Nigeria- 28 feet
Jesus de Greatest is the tallest statue of Jesus Christ in Africa. After a 43-year-old businessman, Obinna Onuoha, had a dream in 1997 to build a giant statue of Jesus, the ‘tallest statue of Jesus in Africa’ commenced construction in 2013.
It was unveiled after three years in St. Aloysius Catholic Church in the Abajah local government area of Imo State, Nigeria. The statue is made of white marble and is 8.53 metres (28.0 ft) tall and weighs 40 tons. The largest statue of Jesus in the world is Christ the King statue which stands in Swiebodzin, Poland, at 33 metres (108 ft) tall.
