Minister of
state for antiquities visits the Sphinx and Mit-Rahina monuments as the Giza
Plateau Development Project moves to the next stage
by Nevine
El-Aref , Sunday 1 Jan 2012
Earlier
today the Minister of State for Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim led a tour around
the Giza plateau to monitor work being done on the Sphinx’s Valley Temple and
Mit-Rahina archaeological site, as part of the lead up to the second phase of
the Giza Plateau Development Project due to be launched in March.
At the
Sphinx’s Valley Temple, workers have been draining the subterranean water that
has accumulated under the iconic statue. Ibrahim maintained that they only
periodically pumped the water as part of the planned schedule designed to
prevent further damage of the Sphinx. At Mit-Rahina, Ibrahim announced an
immediate draining project to ensure the subterranean water levels were reduced
to their original levels at this historical site.
Ibrahim
forged an agreement with the local vendors to rebuild their stalls at a lower
level to maintain a clear panoramic view of the historic monuments, as well as
promising to build a market for tourists selling replicas and souvenirs at the
open air museum.
Ibrahim also
visited the Saqqara archaeological site where he inspected the restoration work
carried out in the Djoser pyramid area. There Ibrahim announced that the Djoser
pyramid restoration work is being carried out according to schedule. To date
six of the pyramid's mastabas (flat-roofed tombs) have been archaeologically
restored and cleaned. Damaged blocks on Djoser have also either been restored
and returned to their original position or replaced with new replicas.
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