Should the Egyptian pyramids be “restored”?
The question is one that applies not only to the pyramids but all ancient monuments and artifacts.
Would the Roman Colosseum be more historically valuable if we could bring it back to its original look or does it speak more eloquently of the passage of time in its present reduced and yes, physically diminished state?
Egypt’s antiquities chief announced a project to restore an ancient pyramid’s granite cladding, calling the wonder “Egypt’s gift to the world,” and gesturing to work that has apparently already begun on the smaller pyramid of Menkaure on the Giza plateau.
Some experts are appalled and have called the cladding an “absurdity” that could damage the structure.
Mostafa Waziri, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, posted a video on Facebook on January 25 announcing the project, which appears to be already underway.
Estimated to have been built almost 5,000 years ago from limestone, granite, and mortar, the pyramid was designed to be the last resting place of the pharaoh Khufu.
The video shows workers excavating sand from a section of the pyramid’s base and layers of grey blocks are already visible.
Though now paused, the project will span three years and will involve intensive study and documentation, Independent Arabia reported Waziri as saying.
The work aims to restore the original look of the pyramids. Most people do not realize that they were in fact covered with either a granite or marble outer sheath that gave them a smooth and gleaming look, rather than the eroded brick and stone we see today. Waziri explains that the work will return the 213-foot pyramid to its original, granite-clad state.
Egyptologist Monica Hanna is one of the experts who is dismayed. According to The Telegraph, she said,”When are we going to stop the absurdity in the management of Egyptian heritage?”
Hanna said the intervention goes against all principles of conservation.
“Interfering with the nature of the monument can cause visible problems and major damage,” she told Independent Arabia.
She is also expressing doubt about the project’s Japanese partners who are carrying out the work, stating that while they have the technology, they don’t have the archaeological expertise needed, she added.
Hussein Bassir, director of antiquities at the Biblioteca Alexandrina, said that the project should be approached with enormous caution and only after considering multiple risks, the outlet reported.
Another expert, Salima Ikram, an Egyptologist at the American University in Cairo, is more optimistic and told the outlet that the project could work “as long as the stones used are the ones found around it, and not adding new ones that do not belong to the pyramid.”
Social media commenters ridiculed the project. “Rather than tiles, why not wallpaper the pyramids?”
The strong criticism against the project has caused Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities to call for a pause to reexamine the project’s feasibility, according to the Telegraph.
The central question remains: should a country’s artistic and historical heritage ever undergo “restoration” and what exactly constitutes an acceptable level of intervention?
For now the Pyramid of Menkaure is safe, though already in an altered state by the work already carried out.
