29.05.2020, 13:53
Saving the Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara
Engineers from Cintec’s Newport office have helped rescue the Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara on the outskirts of Cairo from earthquake damage.
The pyramid, which is also known as “The Step Pyramid”, had been unstable since the natural disaster struck in 1992, and was in danger of collapse. British structural experts Cintec were hired in 2010 to shore up the pyramid which is believed to be the first large stone building in the world.
The repair project was agreed by World Heritage and Egyptian antiquities chiefs.
Over a period of almost a decade, with a three-year hiatus due to the Arab Spring, the team has managed to stabilise the 62-metre high pyramid on the Nile’s west bank near Cairo, using giant airbags and some wire mesh left over from a previous project at Westminster Abbey.
Engineers battled extreme heat, vandalism and political unrest in Egypt, but nine years later Cintec has completed its mammoth task.
A six-tier, four-sided structure, the pyramid was constructed in 27 BC for the burial of Pharaoh Djoser who reigned during Egypt’s Third Dynasty and won renown for his alleged brutality.
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