Egypt is building two highways on the Pyramid Plateau outside Cairo, reviving and expanding a project that was postponed in the 1990s following an international uprising.
The Great Pyramids, Egypt’s top tourist destination, are the only survivors of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and Plato is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The highway is part of an infrastructure push carried out by Egypt’s powerful military and run by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is building a new capital city with a population of 200 million to ease population pressure on Cairo.
The northern highway will cross the desert 1.6 miles south of the Great Pyramid. The southern highway will pass between the Step Pyramid of Sakkara – the oldest pyramid – and the Dahshur area, between the Bent Pyramid and the home of the Red Pyramid.
Each highway appears to be about eight lanes wide. Images from Egyptian scientists and Google Earth show that the formation was largely out of sight in desert areas more than a year ago and will appear more around March.
Critics say they could cause irreparable damage to one of the world’s most important heritage sites. Officials say they will be carefully built and transport links will be improved, adding new urban development and bypassing the crowds of central Cairo.
“The road to development is very important for the Egyptians, for the Egyptians,” said Mustafa al-Waziri, secretary of Egypt’s ancient council. “Know that we take good care of our ancient sites everywhere in Egypt.”
Some Egyptian scientists and conservationists say the highway will disrupt the integrity of the pyramid plateau, pave the way for unsafe archaeological sites, create pollution that could improve monuments, create litter and fill hidden archeological sites with treasures.
Al-Waziri said the existing roads were very close to the pyramids and were carrying a lot of tourist buses. “That’s why we’re developing a lot,” he said, considering plans to use electric tourist buses in Plateau to avoid pollution.
The highway, which will divide the plateau into three parts, will cross a section of ancient Memphis, one of the largest and most influential cities in the world, for nearly 1,000,000 years.
“I was shocked by what I saw,” said Sail Zulfikar, a former senior UNESCO official who visited the South Highway two months ago. “What I did about 25 years ago is now in question.”
Zurofikar led a successful campaign in the mid-1990s to suspend construction of the Northern Highway, a branch of Cairo’s first ring road. UNESCO said it had repeatedly requested for detailed information about the new scheme and asked to send a monitoring mission.
The state press center referred the Reuters request for further comment on his plan to the communications adviser to the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, who could not be reached.
Memphis was founded about 1,000,000 AD. The eclipse took place when Egypt was united into one country, but was not abandoned when Alexander moved the great capital to Alexandria in 331 BC.
The new road comes close to the commercial city of the ancient city, its port walls and the former site of the ancient nilometer used to measure the height of the annual flood, said David Jeffrey, a British Egyptian scientist working on Memphis for Egypt. Exploration Society since 1981.
