Archaeologists are opposing plans to build ring roads around Cairo that cross the Giza plateau, home to Egypt’s most famous pyramids.
The government of President Sisi is finalising a new highway, part of Cairo’s middle ring road, that crosses the Saqqara necropolis, the complex of burial sites that includes the oldest structure, the step pyramid of Djoser, built 4,700 years ago.
Mr Sisi’s government is also trying to convince Unesco, the UN heritage organisation, not to stand in the way of an extension to the city’s first ring road, which will approach the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid.
“Cairo is overcrowded, and needs ring roads,” Osama Okail, the road designer, told The Times. “The construction of any ring road in Cairo will necessarily
