There are landscapes that amaze, that take your breath away. One of them is undoubtedly the panorama that extends in front of the Giza plateau with its powerful three pyramids, the most famous in the world. In that moment of stupefaction one would want to have a time machine at one's side to travel 4,400 years ago and contemplate in all its splendor what the spectacular funerary complexes of the pharaohs Cheops, Khafre and Mycerinus must have looked like.
About three years from now, this dream of history enthusiasts will partly come true. The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has just presented the reconstruction project for the pyramid of Mycerinus, the smallest of the three, to restore its original appearance. In fact, the workers of the Egyptian-Japanese mission leading the initiative have already begun to align layers of granite on the stripped stone blocks, like those that, it is assumed, covered the base of the structure in ancient times.
Is it really a dream for history lovers or rather a nightmare? Egyptology experts and fans have put their hands on their heads. Recover and restore, yes. But reconstruction policies are already part of the past. This is how many of the Internet users have expressed themselves, who have responded, indignant, to the information that the ministry posted a few days ago on Facebook along with a video that showed the beginning of the coating work.
“All international principles on renovations prohibit this type of intervention, all archaeologists must mobilize immediately,” wrote Egyptologist Monica Hanna, encouraging the reaction of her colleagues. “It's not possible!” She concluded incredulously. Other comments have chosen irony. “When will the project to straighten the Tower of Pisa come out?” or “instead of granite, why not wallpaper the pyramids?”
Critical voices resonate throughout the planet. Also in Spain, where different Egyptologists have shown, to say the least, their surprise. “I'm perplexed,” said Josep Padró, emeritus professor of Egyptology at the University of Barcelona who for decades led excavation campaigns at different sites in the country of the Nile. “This will change the look of the pyramids of Giza forever, I don't know if "They have thought it through, it doesn't add up to me," he added.
Alejandro Jiménez Serrano, director of the excavation at the Qubbet el-Hawa necropolis in Aswan, has been more forceful: “I am completely against it, it makes no sense within the current parameters.” “There is very basic technology that allows you to get an idea of what it was like without having to act on it,” he stressed. For the Egyptologist, “Egyptian heritage needs money to preserve and not to rebuild.”
Maite Mascort, co-director of the Oxirrinco Archaeological Mission, has agreed with her colleagues: “I wouldn't touch it.” “I am much more in favor of consolidating and protecting than rebuilding.” The archaeologist has been cautious because she has not yet had time to learn about the project in depth, although she is also clear about one thing: the result “will change the appearance” of the place forever.
Mustafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, leads the controversial project together with the Japanese Yoshimura Sakuji. In a press release, the ministry specified that when the work is completed, it will be possible to see “for the first time the complete pyramid of King Menkaure with its outer covering as it was built by the ancient Egyptians.” “It is the project of the century and Egypt's gift to the world,” Waziri said last Friday while supervising the first works.
The project is divided into different stages that will take place over three years, and include drawing work, photogrammetry, documentation and laser scanning before concluding with the reassembly of the granite blocks.
This announcement comes at a time when part of Egyptian civil society has mobilized against the destruction of some areas of historic Cairo. One of the latest examples has been a 15th century Alexandria mosque whose ornate, sculpted and colorful ceilings have been restored with white paint.
Without a doubt, the pyramid of Mycerinus is the least spectacular of the three that dominate the Giza plateau, all belonging to the IV dynasty. The first, that of Pharaoh Cheops, is the only one of the seven wonders of antiquity that remains standing. It was also the tallest, at more than 145 meters high. His son, Khafre, designed a funerary complex that is located near the mysterious Sphinx. While the grandson of the first and son of the second, Mycerinus (Menkure), opted for a more modest pyramid.
Called in its time 'Menkure is divine', this last pyramid barely exceeded 65 meters high. It is assumed that its first 16 courses were covered with pink granite from Aswan, while the rest should be covered with white limestone from Tura, as was the case with the Great Pyramid of Cheops. At its top, it had to show off a pyramid of gold or electro. We'll see if the reconstruction project reaches that height.
