A week ago, the head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, Mostafa Waziri, posted a Facebook video showing workers setting blocks of granite on the base of the shortest of the three Giza pyramids.

The footage sparked a storm of criticism from Egyptologists who voiced fears that a wholesale reconstruction of the famed monument was under way, to the detriment of the preservation of its historic fabric.

Trying to calm the debate, in a country where tourism accounts for 10 percent of GDP, the ministry announced that it has set up a "scientific committee chaired by... Zahi Hawass", a well-known Egyptian archaeologist, to review the project.

[www.france24.com]

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