The plan to renovate the pyramid has sparked controversy

For some it is “Project of the Century”For others “an absurdity”: A new project to renovate the Pyramid of Mykerinos on the Giza Plateau is shaking up all of Egypt.

In a video released Friday, Egypt's head of antiquities, Mostafa Waziri, shows workers aligning granite stones at the base of the Mycarinos pyramid, the lowest of Giza's three pyramids. When it was built, the pyramid of Mycarinos was covered with granite stones. Over time, it has lost part of its covering. The current project aims to restore this granite layer to restore the pyramid to its original appearance. This is “Update” will last “three years” and will be “A Gift to the World from Egypt in the 21st Century”The head of the Egyptian-Japanese Mission in charge of the project, Mr. Welcomes the Waziri and confirms it “For the first time, it will allow us to see the pyramid of Mycarinos, built by the ancient Egyptians”.

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But under the video, dozens of horrified commenters lost their temper. “No way!”On Facebook, Egyptologist Monica Hanna responded with apparent outrage. “All that's missing is tiling the pyramid of Mycarinos! When are we going to stop the absurdity of managing Egyptian heritage?She writes again. “All international principles on reconstruction prohibit such interventions, and all archaeologists must mobilize immediately”, she says. Online, internet users all dig their sharpest: “When will the plan to straighten the Leaning Tower of Pisa arrive?”He writes about an Italian monument known precisely because it leans. “Why not wallpaper the pyramids, rather than tiles?”Ironically, another internet user suggests.

The question of protecting heritage sites in Egypt – a country that relies on tourism for 10% of its GDP and home to the Cheops Pyramid, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World that can still be seen today – is often raised.

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The recent destruction of entire swaths of historic Cairo has strongly mobilized a civil society virtually barred from political action, which now concentrates much of its opposition to the regime in the area of ​​urban planning and heritage. In recent days, the debate has focused on a 15th-century mosque in Alexandria in the north, the Abu al-Abbas al-Morsi Mosque. The governorate has announced it will launch an investigation after the contractor responsible for the renovation decided to repaint the ornate, carved and colorful ceilings of Egypt's second largest mosque in white.