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Egypt's Oldest Pyramid Is Being Destroyed By Its Own Restoration Team

Posted by samzenpus on from the this-won't-take-long dept.

Taffykay writes The oldest pyramid in Egypt, the Pyramid of Djoserat Saqqara, is being destroyed by the very company the Egyptian government has hired to restore it. The roughly 4,600-year-old structure has been in trouble since an earthquake hit the region in 1992, but in a difficult political and economic climate for the country, those now tasked with preserving the pyramid are said to be doing more harm than good.

5 of 246 comments (clear)

  1. The biggest risk to the pyramids is Islam by Chrisq · · Score: 4, Informative

    Egyptian Muslims have already called for the destruction of the pyramids and the sphinx, juts like the Buddhas of Bamiyan.

    1. Re:The biggest risk to the pyramids is Islam by Idimmu+Xul · · Score: 5, Informative

      In 1994 there were 23,730 homicides in the USA source.

      Isis are responsible for way more than 23,730 deaths source.

      Read in to that what you like :)

      --
      The problem with slashdot is that most of its users were bullied and stuffed into lockers as kids!
    2. Re:The biggest risk to the pyramids is Islam by Amtrak · · Score: 4, Informative

      Let's not forget that Christians and Muslims are both religions with divergent sects. As such it might be helpful to see the following list:

      • Christians (General) 2.5+ Billion
      • Catholic Church: 1.2 Billion
      • Islam (General): 1.2 Billion
      • Sunni Islam: 0.9 Billion
      • Protestantism: 0.8 Billion
      • Shia Islam: 0.3 Billion
      • Eastern Orthodox (Christian): 0.25 Billion
      • Other Christian: 0.2 Billion

      By that account the Catholic Church is still the biggest religion.

  2. Re:a shame but... by AC-x · · Score: 5, Informative

    The pyramids being made by slave labour is something of a myth. There's not much evidence available for early pyramids, but there's plenty of evidence that later pyramids were made by skilled craftsmen and not slaves.

  3. Re:... all in the name of "Allah" by omems · · Score: 4, Informative

    I visited Cairo and Giza in the spring of 2013 and can confirm there were almost no tourists. There are, however, men with machine guns guarding the pyramids and sphynx, as well as the main museum, in addition to metal detectors and visual inspections upon entering these places (though you could enter from the desert and avoid them in the case of Giza). The violence I witnessed wasn't random acts of terror, but civil/political unrest before Morsi got the boot.

    Money, including tourism dollars, is very much a motivating factor for the parties involved. I don't have a comprehensive knowledge of the politics, but the locals I talked to reviled Morsi precisely because of his lack of money (and his allegiances). Most visibly, infrastructure and the jobs created in its construction and maintenance, that Mubarak had, was sorely missed.