Pyramids in peril from new roads

First it was the desert, and then it was Cairo’s famous cemetery complex, the City of the Dead. Now the Egyptian president’s determination to build a modern road network is threatening the pyramids.

At least three highways have been built in the so-called Memphis Necropolis west of Cairo, home to the Great Pyramid of Khufu in Giza.

The new roads have alarmed Egyptologists and conservationists, who say they will disrupt the integrity of the plateau on which the pyramids sit, concrete over unexplored archaeological sites, generate pollution that could corrode monuments, and expose closed areas packed with hidden archaeological treasures to looting.

The most recent highway is the AlKablat road, which crosses the necrop- olis north of the Great Pyramid at Abu Rawash near the largely destroyed pyramid of Redjedef, an Egyptian king of the 4th dynasty.

‘‘The ancient monumental pavement of the Redjedef pyramid at Abu Rawash has just been gutted and irreparably damaged,’’ said Franck Monnier, an engineer who specialises in ancient Egyptian architecture and construction techniques.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi came to power with ambitious plans to modernise Egypt, including the building of a new capital city in the desert to the east of Cairo, and driving motorways

through the labyrinthine city itself.

The first road to cross the Pyramid Plateau was built in 2020, about 2.4km south of the Great Pyramid. A second road crosses the Saqqara Necropolis between the limestone Step Pyramid of Djoser and the Red Pyramid in Dahshur. Each highway has about eight lanes.

‘‘If the map is true, then we are facing a civilisational disaster,’’ said Bassam Al-Shamaa, a lecturer in Egyptology. ‘‘We are talking about a

danger not only to the discovered antiquities but also to the undiscovered antiquities.’’

Lazare Eloundou Assomo, the director of Unesco’s World Heritage Centre, said: ‘‘Our experts are closely monitoring these situations to ensure that Egypt fully respects its commitments as a state party to the World Heritage Convention to protect World Heritage sites. We hope that suitable solutions will be found and implemented by Egyptian authorities.’’