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Team planning to rebuild outside of King Menkaure’s pyramid in Egypt told “it’s an impossible project”
Cairo — Just weeks after an Egyptian-Japanese archaeological team announced an ambitious project to reconstruct the outer granite casing of the pyramid of King Menkaure, the smallest of the three main pyramids at Egypt’s iconic Giza Necropolis, a committee appointed to review the plans has declared it “impossible.”
Criticism and fear over the plans for the piece of Egyptian national heritage started to spread online and in the media as soon as the project was announced last month.
The plan had been to dig out and examine dozens of large granite blocks from around the base of the pyramid, with the aim being to eventually reinstall them around the pyramid’s exterior to restore it to what it’s believed to have looked like when it was built more than 4,000 years ago.
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King Menkaure’s pyramid now has between three and eight rows of the granite blocks around its base, but it originally had 16 rows of the blocks rising up the four sides of the structure.
Photos posted by the team, showing the existing original lower rows around the bottom of the pyramid, drew scorn from some observers online who thought the reassembly work had already begun. But experts who understood exactly what the team had planned to do also strongly rejected the entire notion of the project.
Last week, a committee tasked by Egypt’s Minister of Tourism and Antiquities to look into the matter as the controversy unfolded also issued a firm rejection of the proposed project.
“The Menkaure Pyramid Review Committee (MPRC), has unanimously objected to the re-installation of the granite casing blocks, scattered around the base of the pyramid since thousands of years ago,” a report by the committee read.
KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty
The committee underlined “the importance of maintaining the pyramid’s current state without alterations, given its exceptional universal and archaeological value.”
“There is no way,” the head of the review committee, veteran Egyptian archaeologist and former Minister of Antiquities Dr. Zahi Hawass, told CBS News after the decision was reached. “The stones are not shaped at all. How can you put unshaped stones back? There is no way, you cannot know the location of each stone. It’s an impossible project.”
“The pyramid is in my blood, I lived in this area, I excavated every piece of sand, and I’m telling you that no one can put these granite stones back. It’s impossible.”
“We are talking about saving the third pyramid, Menkaure. We do not need any changes,” Hawass said, adding: “This is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The project has been discussed by six top Egyptologists, engineers, and architects.”
He said reinstalling the stones would involve the use of modern materials such as cement, which the committee couldn’t back.
“All the international organizations’ rules, such as UNESCO and others, always like to keep the site as it is, without any changes,” Hawass said.
He explained that the committee was open to discussing moving the stones for research and excavation work in the area, assuming a number of conditions were met to preserve the antiquities, but he said even that work was beyond the scope of what the Japanese-Egyptian team could take on.
“In my opinion, I think this is a major, important project, and it will be impossible to do it without an international campaign,” he said. “I think we would need UNESCO to participate.”
The Egyptian-Japanese archaeological team behind the plans did not respond to CBS News’ request for comment on the committee’s decision, and it was not clear if they planned to challenge the ruling with the Ministry of Antiquities in a bid to continue with what they had promised would be “Egypt’s gift to the world in the 21st century.”
NEW YORK — Former New York Gov. David Paterson and his stepson were attacked in New York City on Friday night, authorities said.
The incident occurred just before 9 p.m. on Second Avenue near East 96th Street on the Upper East Side, according to the New York City Police Department.
Police said officers were sent to the scene after an assault was reported. When officers arrived, police say they found a 20-year-old man suffering from facial injuries and a 70-year-old man who had head pain. Both victims were taken to a local hospital in stable condition.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the former governor said the two were attacked while “taking a walk around the block near their home by some individuals that had a previous interaction with his stepson.”
The spokesperson said that they were injured “but were able to fight off their attackers.”
Both were taken to Cornell Hospital “as a precaution,” he added.
Police said no arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
The 70-year-old Paterson, a Democrat, served as governor from 2008 to 2010, stepping into the post after the resignation of Eliot Spitzer following his prostitution scandal. He made history at the time as the state’s first-ever Black and legally blind governor.
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A 17-year-old boy was critically injured and a person is in custody after a gunman opened fire on a SEPTA bus in North Philadelphia Friday evening, police said.
At around 6:15 p.m., Philadelphia police were notified about a shooting on a SEPTA bus traveling on Allegheny Avenue near 3rd and 4th streets in North Philadelphia, Inspector D F Pace told CBS News Philadelphia.
There were an estimated 30 people on the bus at the time of the shooting, Pace said, but only the 17-year-old boy was believed to have been shot. Investigators said they believe it was a targeted attack on the teenager and that he was shot in the back of the bus at close range.
According to Pace, the SEPTA bus driver alerted a control center about the shooting, which then relayed the message to Philadelphia police, who responded to the scene shortly.
Officers arrived at the scene and found at least one spent shell casing and blood on the bus, but no shooting victim, Pace said. Investigators later discovered the 17-year-old had been taken to Temple University Hospital where he is said to be in critical condition, according to police.
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Through their preliminary investigation, police learned those involved in the SEPTA shooting may have fled in a silver-colored Kia.
Authorities then found a car matching the description of the Kia speeding in the area and a pursuit began, Pace said. Police got help from a PPD helicopter as they followed the Kia, which ended up crashing at 5th and Greenwood streets in East Mount Airy. Pace said the Kia crashed into a parked car.
The driver of the crashed car ran away but police were still able to take them into custody, Pace said.
Investigators believe there was a second person involved in the shooting who ran from the car before it crashed. Police said they believe this person escaped near Allegheny Avenue and 4th Street, leaving a coat behind.
According to Pace, police also found a gun and a group of spent shell casings believed to be involved in the shooting in the same area.
“It’s very possible that there may have been a shooting inside the bus and also shots fired from outside of the bus toward the bus,” Pace said, “We’re still trying to piece all that together at this time.”
This is an active investigation and police are reviewing surveillance footage from the SEPTA bus.