Hundreds of thousands of people have lined Cairo's streets to bid farewell to the statue of Ramses II, which was moved to .the site of the Grand Museum of Egypt, near the Giza Pyramids.

Cairo residents of all ages and backgrounds and tourists took to the streets in the middle of the night Thursday to follow the statue of the greatest warrior king in ancient Egypt as it moved slowly through the city's downtown.

People put out flags on their balconies and greeted the statue with cheers and slogans like "we will miss you Ramses."

For 50 years, it had stood in a Cairo square, hemmed in by bridges, an underground railway and a mosque.

There were worries that heavy pollution was damaging the 3,200-year-old statue, which is 11 metres (36 feet) high and weighs about 83 tonnes.

It took 10 hours for the colossus to travel the 35km to its new home. The statue was moved, in one piece and surrounded by a steel cage, through Cairo at a stately pace on two flatbed trucks.

The head of Ramses, protruding from the protective steel, was wrapped in plastic and thick padding, but its face was visible to the crowds lining the streets.

The statue's new home is a site on which a new museum of antiquities is being built.
"Ramses will be happy now," said Zahi Hawass, the Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Hawass said the statue originally stood in Memphis, one of the ancient capitals of Egypt, more than 3,200 years ago.

It was found in excavations in 1882. In the mid-1950s it was cut into eight pieces and moved to Ramses Square in central Cairo.

Ramses II ruled Egypt for more than 60 years during the 19th dynasty of pharaohs 3,200 years ago. He was one of ancient Egypt's most prolific builders.

Statues and temples dedicated to him have been found all over Egypt, but the huge figure that once adorned central Cairo is the best known of his monuments.

On the other hand, The Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) has sent a letter to UNESCO's World Heritage Committee to probe the relocation of the Sun Boats from their current position near the Giza Pyramids to the Grand Egyptian Museum in El-Remayeh square.

SCA Secretary General Dr. Zahi Hawass said that the moving of the Sun Boats was as important, if not more, as moving Ramses II.

The thought to move such important antiquity pieces has been prompted by the fact that the Sun Boats are unsafe where they currently are due to pollution.

The spectacular Sun Boats are another creation of the ancient Egyptians that portray part of the religious rituals of the Pharaohs.