The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced today, Friday, that the ministry, represented by the Supreme Council of Antiquities through a joint Egyptian-Japanese archaeological mission, will begin implementing the Project of the Century. The ministry clarified that it has started a project to study and document the granite blocks that comprise the outer casing of King Menkaure's pyramid located in the Giza pyramid area, in preparation for their reassembly.
For his part, the Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities and Head of the archaeological mission from the Egyptian side, Mustafa Waziri, expressed his happiness at the commencement of this wonderful project, describing it as "the Project of the Century and Egypt’s gift to the world in conjunction with the imminent opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum." Waziri noted that "this project will contribute to seeing King Menkaure's pyramid for the first time fully covered with the outer casing as built by the ancient Egyptians," pointing out that "the granite blocks of the outer casing of the pyramid were about 16 blocks, of which only 7 blocks remain today, and this project will work on studying, restoring, documenting, and reassembling them."
The Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities added that "this project will be implemented in several phases over three years, including drawing, photogrammetry, documentation, and laser scanning, followed by the actual reassembly of the granite blocks."
