Egypt orders review of pyramid restoration after outcry

AFP | Cairo, Egypt

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Egypt's antiquities ministry said yesterday it was setting up a committee to review the restoration of Giza's Menkaure Pyramid after a public outcry over the project.

A week ago, the head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, Mostafa Waziri, posted a Facebook video showing workers setting blocks of granite on the base of the shortest of the three Giza pyramids.

The footage sparked a storm of criticism from Egyptologists who voiced fears that a wholesale reconstruction was under way.

Trying to calm the debate, in a country where tourism accounts for 10 percent of GDP, the ministry announced that it has set up a "scientific committee chaired by... Zahi Hawass", a well-known Egyptian archaeologist, to review the project.