Egypt has scuttled a controversial plan to reinstall ancient granite cladding on the pyramid of Menkaure, the smallest of the three great pyramids of Giza, a committee formed by the country's tourism minister said in a statement. Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, announced the plan last month, declaring it would be "the project of the century". But news that the ancient monument might be altered quickly drew an international outcry, prompting Egypt's antiquities authority to review the project.