Egyptian archeologists have unearthed a 3,000-year-old piece of a statue of Amenhotep III, believed to be the grandfather of the famed boy pharaoh Tutankhamun.

"The find is fantastic...because of the details of the facial features," Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities Secretary General Zahi Hawass said in a statement.

Scientists had been excavating Amenhotep III funerary temple at Kom al-Hitan on Luxor's west bank when they unearthed the upper half of the red-granite statue of the famous pharaoh's grandfather.

The statue depicts Amenhotep III sitting down on a throne, accompanied by god Amun.

Egyptologists believe the full statue is some three meters (nearly 10 feet) tall.

Many fragments of red-granite statues have been unearthed at Amenhotep III's funerary temple within the last years.

Amenhotep III ruled Egypt between 1390 and 1352 BC. He was almost certainly the grandfather of Tutankhamun, according to the results of DNA tests of Tutankhamun's mummy.

CAIRO, October 3 (RIA Novosti)