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Colossal statue of the river Nile
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The new wing of the Vatican Museums, Museo Pio-Clementine, is home to Colossus of the Nile the river god, identified by the sphinxes and crocodiles, is represented as a dispenser of blessings. The 16 boys are thought to be an allusion to the number of cubits the level of the Nile rises when it floods, fertilizing the region which it crosses. The reliefs on the base represent life on the banks of the river. It is a 1st century A.D. Roman work most likely based on a Hellenistic original.
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