The Egyptian-Japanese archaeological mission on Thursday began a project to study and document the granite blocks comprising the outer casing of the Pyramid of Menkaure located in the Giza Pyramids area, in preparation for their reassembly.
The archaeological mission is headed by the Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt Mostafa Waziri and Japan’s prominent Egyptian archaeologist and the president of the Higashi Nippon International University, Sakuji Yoshimura.
Waziri expressed his happiness at starting this project, noting that it will contribute to restoring the Pyramid of Menkaure’s outer casing for the first time – just as the ancient Egyptians had built it.
The outer covering of the pyramid was originally made up of 16 granite blocks, he said, of which only seven blocks currently remain.
The project will work on studying, restoring, documenting and reassembling these blocks, he explained.
Waziri added that this project will be implemented in several stages over a period of three years, including drawing, photogrammetry, documentation, and laser scanning work, and then the actual reinstalling of the granite blocks.
