Egypt Scraps Controversial Renovation Project for Pyramid on Giza Plateau
In other Egypt News: The government is selling off historic hotels and is building a massive Gaza border.
A few weeks ago, there was an announcement for an Egyptian-Japanese archaeological team to reconstruct the outer granite casing of the pyramid of King Menkaure, the smallest of the three main pyramids at Egypt’s famous Giza Plateau.
The idea was quickly met with sharp criticism a committee appointed to review the plans has declared it “impossible.”
The plan had been to dig out and examine dozens of large granite blocks from around the base of the pyramid, with the aim being to eventually reinstall them around the pyramid’s exterior to restore it to what it’s believed to have looked like when it was built more than 4,000 years ago.
…Last week, a committee tasked by Egypt’s Minister of Tourism and Antiquities to look into the matter as the controversy unfolded also issued a firm rejection of the proposed project.
“The Menkaure Pyramid Review Committee (MPRC), has unanimously objected to the re-installation of the granite casing blocks, scattered around the base of the pyramid since thousands of years ago,” a report by the committee read.
The committee underlined “the importance of maintaining the pyramid’s current state without alterations, given its exceptional universal and archaeological value.”
Now Egypt has officially scrapped the project.
Officials planned to install cladding made of ancient granite on the pyramid of Menkaure, which is smallest of the three main Giza pyramids. The site is one of the seven wonders of the world.
The Menkaure Pyramid Review Committee announced on Thursday that its plans had been scrapped.
The head of the Menkaure Pyramid Review Committee, Zahi Hawass, was concerned about cladding the blocks with cement, which could ruin the ancient structure. He also said it would be impossible to determine exactly where each block had been.
“What I want to say is don’t worry, the pyramids of Giza are safe, and nothing will happen to them,” Hawass said to Reuters. “People everywhere are calling me, writing letters, emails. They are worried.”
Mankaure was the fifth king of the famous pyramid-building 4th Dynasty of ancient Egypt and the grandson of the big pyramid builder Khufu.
While I am on the subject of Egypt, I thought it worthwhile to do a status check. The last time I reported on the Land of the Nile, income from the Suez Canal had declined precipitously due to Houthi piracy in the Red Sea.
Now Egypt is selling off a portfolio of historic hotels that were a premier part of state assets.
The sale of Mena House and six other historic hotels – financed by the Emirates – is part of what Timothy E Kaldas, an analyst of Egypt’s struggling and often opaque economy, termed “an underwhelming fire sale” of state assets, as the government clamours for cash injections while diving deeper into debt.
Moustafa is Egypt’s largest real estate developer, whose business empire has witnessed a rebirth since his release from prison in 2017, after President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi pardoned him of a murder conviction. His portfolio includes properties across Egypt’s new capital, the crown jewel of Sisi’s megaprojects, in addition to his hospitality arm, Icon, which owns several luxury hotels in Cairo.
His Talaat Moustafa Group (TMG) has now acquired seven heritage hotels across Egypt, including Mena House. This includes others that serve as monuments to Egypt’s recent past, including the Sofitel Winter Palace in Luxor, the Old Cataract in Aswan and the Steigenberger Cecil on the Alexandria coastline. International hotel chains continue to run the hotels, but Icon bought a majority stake in the Egyptian government company which owned them.
The Egyptian prime minister, Mostafa Madbouly, celebrated the $800m sale to Moustafa, who lauded the acquisition for bringing in foreign currency. He added that the sale was financed by “a well-known international strategic investor”.
Those of us who know Egypt appreciate the significance of these hotels.
Finally, in response to the Israeli response to the Oct. 7th attacks by Hamas, Egypt is returning to the days of monumental construction projects…this time an 8-mile border wall.
Egyptian authorities, fearful that an Israeli military push further into southern Gaza will set off a flood of refugees, are building an 8-square-mile walled enclosure in the Sinai Desert near the border, according to Egyptian officials and security analysts.
For weeks, Egypt has sought to bolster security along the frontier to keep Palestinians out, deploying soldiers and armored vehicles and reinforcing fences. The massive new compound is part of contingency plans if large numbers of Gazans do manage to get in.
More than 100,000 people could be accommodated in the camp, Egyptian officials said. It is surrounded by concrete walls and far from any Egyptian settlements. Large numbers of tents, as yet unassembled, have been delivered to the site, these people said.
Satellite images show Egypt levelling land and building a wall along its border with the Gaza Strip near the Rafah crossing.
The construction suggests Egypt is preparing for a possible influx of displaced Palestinians, amid fears that Israel's planned ground invasion of Rafah. pic.twitter.com/QmDVe4TPAc
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) February 17, 2024
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Have any of the Democrats warned the Egyptians that border walls don’t work?
Border walls work as well as the security cameras in the Metropolitan Correctional Center’s Special Housing Unit– that is to say, they work extremely well, until it’s more convenient for you that they don’t work.
So what you are saying is the Egyptians don’t want to deal with the Palestinians either.
Egyptians have never wanted to deal with the Gazans. Neither has any Arab country. The Gazans are the pariahs of the Middle East and are treated as such by pretty much all of the other Arab countries.
Kuwait deported almost 400K ‘Palestinians’…in 1-week. Some of that was driven by Arafat’s public support of Saddam Hussein during his invasion of Kuwait. But, a LOT of it also had to do with Kuwaitis being sick & tired of the Palestinians and their bullshit.
At one time egypt was more generous to displaced palestinians and tried to allow some to “re-settle” in egypt. But then sadat got assassinated. Jordan doesn’t want them either for similar reasons.
They did throw those terrorists out once already. Unlike Western Countries they took that lesson to heart and don’t want them back.
Maybe Egypt will do their share to find and destroy Hamas tunnels, and their bases.
The solution is to have Egypt reach out to The History Channel and request the ancient aliens return to do some maintenance work.
A question rarely asked, How is it that the impressive cladding on the pyramids disappeared?
Because the answer is embarrassing to Muslims who invaded/subdued Egypt in the period 639-642AD. Their Big Mo had died (by murder unsurprisingly given the nature of his cult) in 632AD.
Short answer, Muslims invaded and destroyed. This is the way of Islam, a pattern which continues to this day.
https://www.reddit.com/r/history/comments/cxgj96/what_happened_to_the_marble_casings_and_gold/
I thought the cladding on all the pyramids was limestone to reflect the sunlight like a beacon. That limestone stolen for bathrooms and such by the people of today
Did they discover the hamas tunnels connecting pyramids to gaza?
No, just the one that goes to Abydos.
Interesting. I’ve actually stayed in the Mena House. It’s…very nice and the location is unbelievable. When I was there it was a Marriott property. I wonder if that Marriott affiliation will continue.
I get why the refacing of the Pyramid of Menkaure would be bad. But, I would have been fascinated to see how they would do it. I suspect it would be incredibly difficult even with modern technology…which of course raises questions about how it was constructed thousands of years ago.
All of the historical monuments at Giza were built with slave labor. The only solution for Egypt is to tear everything down and destroy the bricks.
Africans enslaving africans. Because those are their beliefs, their values, their culture.
LeftWingLock: All of the historical monuments at Giza were built with slave labor.
That is incorrect. Archaeological discoveries show that the pyramids were built by paid labourers. Their barracks, bakeries, breweries, and tombs have been discovered, along with graffiti and memorials telling of their lives.
Thank you for inserting facts into this perennial conversation about who laboured on the pyramids. A bit of research can show there were various types of laborers who lived with their families, who may have been seasonal workers, who may even in some cases been volunteers participating in a ‘national’ project. Even if conscripted for a period of time they were still not slaves. Also, DNA shows that workers on the pyramid of Khufu came from all over the country and no
foreign DNA has so far been found.
Or revisionist history for woke progressive leftist narrative? Call them “volunteer seasonal workers”? lol
Hmm, nah, they were slaves, ask Moses
Africans running their own slave trade is too triggering for woke lefties.
gonzotx: Hmm, nah, they were slaves, ask Moses
The pyramids were already centuries old by the time of Moses. The Israelites didn’t even exist as a people when the pyramids were built.
I am no Egyptologist, but my understanding is the Giza pyramids were constructed c. 2575–c. 2465 BCE, while Joseph & his 11 brothers and father arrived c. 1850 BCE and departed approximately 400 years later. Archeological evidence has the walls of Jericho and the city burned c. 1407 BCE.
There is zero evidence the Hebrews were ever enslaved in Egypt. The story of Moses is a fable, developed as part of a fictitious history meant to unify the people of Israel, giving them a national origin story distancing them from their Canaanite roots.
Just stop with this nonsense
To diver64:
It’s a fact. Zero evidence the Hebrews were enslaved in Egypt. I believe there is a single reference in all known records of even the mere presence of the Hebrews in Egypt, and even that record is subject to alternative interpretations. (“Presence” doesn’t mean they were slaves. There is nothing to indicate they were, as a people, slaves in Egypt.) Sorry it does not comport with your beliefs, but your beliefs do not alter the facts.
Also, the Nile flowed much closer to the site for transport of materials. Still… the grand scale still dwarfs what modern technology can do.
It’s absolutely amazing that these ancients transported these blocks without the wheel, and fashioned them as rectangular prisms without cutting tools. A professor of mine delighted in illustrating the “sleight of hand” they used to erect 100-foot granite obelisks with muscle power alone.
How just one man can move megaliths with primitive means.
Because everybody knows slaves don’t need barracks, bakeries, breweries, or tombs. Just kennels and DoorDash accounts.
Too bad no one knows how to read hieroglyphs.
I bet the Egyptian gov freaking LOVES Iran for financing the terror on shipping routes.
One wonders why THEY don’t have a little proxy war with the Iranians.
Iran seems to be the only one willing to play in the gutter.
America wouldn’t let them. Although we should.
Nice propaganda piece by Aljazeera. With respect, no, I don’t care about the peace process more than anything else. I care about justice for the murdered Israelis. I care about reasonable treatment of ordinary Palestinians who have been abused by Hamas thugs and hard-boys.
The UNRWA should be dissolved; Hamas should be destroyed; the Palestinians should learn to live in peace on whatever plots of land they can be trusted with; the Israelis should deal with their own problems.
hate to mention it, but dere ain’t no sich thing as “Palestinians” n’ the UNRWA people have been rakin’ in more cash than Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy; dey ain’t lettin’ go of dat cow so quickly.
Just stop with this nonsense the South Syrian Sheepherders have been a cash cow for decades. No one cares about them except for the dollars rained in from the West for some reason
“just stop with this nonsense” oddly added to my comment.
EGYPT= NIMBY
the un and fjb have teamed up to destroy america and israel by proxy
as the fear of the omarzation of america permeates civilized society we have relied on the gop to stop this
the have not
they will not
maga
Isn’t this covered under the warranty?
Yes, but nobody can read the claim paperwork.