AM co-host Lloyd Burr harshly criticised a restoration project underway on one of the pyramids of Giza on Thursday morning.
The project aims to restore the Pyramid of Menkaure, the smallest of the Giza pyramids, to its original appearance by installing sloped granite blocks onto the exterior surface.
Built over 4000 years ago, the pyramid has been whittled away by erosion and vandalism.
Burr said he almost spat out his food when he saw the story on Newshub Live at 6pm.
"When I first saw it, I thought it was just a graphical rendering, but this is already happening" he said.
"I can see why you spat out your food," co-host Melissa Chan-Green said.
Mostafa Waziri, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, described the restoration plan as "a gift from Egypt to the world".
The pyramid was originally intended to be cased in granite before another pharaoh came along and decided to use limestone. Burr is not a fan of the granite.
"That just looks horrific, it looks like its been done by an intern at a concrete factory who failed to put the lines in properly.
"I think they've ruined it," Burr declared.
Chan-Green said, "there's merit to restoration projects sometimes because it is nice to restore something to how it was, and you get to see it in all its former glory".
However, she thought the pyramid restoration was "butchering it really".
AM newsreader Nicky Styris noted the price of granite, "can you imagine what it will cost to reclad that thing with granite?"
"My granite benchtop was expensive," she joked.
Burr also raised concerns about the weight of the granite.
"The existing structure is centuries and centuries old and there are hollow portions within it, imagine adding all of that weight," he said.
"This isn't even really restoration, it's just rebuilding," Chan-Green said.
"I feel like it's vandalism," Burr said.
