Brian Roemmele
“Take Down This Pyramid” In 1196, Al-Aziz Uthman, the son of Saladin, decided the structures were un-Islamic monuments and ordered them demolished, starting with the smallest, the Pyramid of Menkaure. Workers spent eight months attempting to dismantle it. They wedged blocks, used ropes, and dropped heavy stones to crack the masonry, but found the removal of even one block impossibly expensive and physically exhausting. The project was eventually abandoned, leaving a permanent vertical gash on Menkaure's north face that still exists today A massive vertical gash on the north face of the Pyramid of Menkaure, left by stonecutters during an abandoned demolition attempt by Al-Aziz Uthman in 1196.
