The Egyptian government has reopened one of its great pyramids in an attempt to kick-start a tourism industry that was badly affected by last year's uprising.
Antiquities Minister Muhammad Ibrahim announced that the Pyramid of Chefren and as many as six other ancient tombs at the Giza site will be reopened after a long restoration project. But, while questions are still being asked about the security of potential tourists visiting the region, Mr Ibrahim insisted that Egypt was a safe country
While there is evidence that the Egyptian tourism industry is picking up, there is widespread concern that the region is still prone to spontaneous and violent riots.
Egypt became a genuine no-go area following the unrest that ousted President Hosni Mubarak. Scenes of rioting in Cairo, and horror stories of western female journalists being sexually assaulted by mobs in Tahrir Square, understandably took the country off the holiday trail.
But Mr Ibrahim was keen to point out that the region was far more stable one year on, adding that other archaeological sites were due to be opened across Egypt in coming months.
Scenes of violent protests, mainly in the capital Cairo, were broadcast around the world.
'I am very happy today to reopen these tombs which were closed for more than ten years due to restoration,' an ecstatic MSA chief Mohamed Ibrahim told reporters.
The tomb and the others around it, were discovered in 1927 by American Egyptologist George Reinser, and have been closed for restoration on several other occasions in the past.
In the 1990s a site management plan was implemented to try and preserve these historic treasures when the Ministry of State Antiquities (MSA) discovered that the large volume of visitors over the years had raised levels of humidity inside the structures to levels of up to 80 per cent.
Research found that every visitor to the pyramids releases an average of 20 grams of water vapour through sweat.
This had slowly caused damage to the plaster that covers part of the Grand Gallery. The walls were also found to be covered with up to 2cm of salt minerals.
Accoring to Ahram online the project, which cost around $4 million, included cleaning the walls of the tombs and reinforcing them, as well as removing graffiti left by previous visitors. Inscriptions and paintings were also preserved.
The ground is now protected by wood to maintain the tomb's original rock and enable tourists to walk inside.
New lighting and ventilation systems have also been installed. A path linking the tombs to the Great Pyramid of Khufu was carved to enable movement across the plateau.
The Pyramid of Chefren, otherwise known as the Pyramid of Khafre, is the second largest pyramid in the Giza necropolis.
It was built as the tomb for the Pharaoh Khafre from ancient Egypt's fourth dynasty. It rises to a height of 448ft. It looks to be the tallest of the Gisa pyramids - but only because it it built at a higher elevation than the Great Pyramid (or Pyramid of Khufu), which is seven feet taller at 455ft but is 50ft wider at its base.
Originally both pyramids stood about 20 feet taller, but many casing stones toward the top of each and the caps - or pyrimidions - have been eroded or destroyed.
In the case of the Pyramid of Chefren, stones were removed to build a temple in Heliopolis on the orders of Rameses II.
The pyramid was most likely first opened - and robbed - more than 2,000 years before the birth of Christ. Yet the interiors of the giant structure remain remarkably intact and stunning.
Carvings, statues and dead-straight passageways inspire awe at the genius of ancient artists and stonemasons.
The first recorded opening of the pyramid was in 1372. Fully notated explorations of the pyramid were conducted by Giovanni Belzoni in 1818, and a more complete exploration was made by John Perring in 1837.
source: dailymail
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