I guess the Great Pyramids were once the most important stop on the Grand Tour, if you were a dashing young socialite hell-bent on seeing the World at Daddy's expense, and basically shoved off abroad in order to stop embarassing the family. It certainly was up until recently. When my brother went there maybe 10 years ago, he reported back tales of many a foppish 18 year old living on an extensive annuity, and generally making merry around the globe. But times have changed, yes, not such a desirable place to visit now is it? Not that it really was before, but the revenue from tourism kept the welcome mat out even though you were liable to have your bus raked with machine-gun fire if you happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Bad enough the awful food, the incessant heat, the persistent hawkers, the flies, the stinking camels and a whole lot of sand. That was all tolerable to get a good rummage around the Pyramids, the Sphinx, Luxor etc. But not any more, the welcome mat has truly been withdrawn and reigious extremism and hatred of Westerners is now rife. The Egyptian goverment and particularly the custodians of Egyptian antiquities want to deter tourists from visiting Egypts monuments. Gun-toting soldiers have orders to shoot anyone trying to scale the pyramids for instance. We've all seen the adverts for the Red Sea resorts. They'd rather you went there instead, but it's not much of a holiday when you know you're surrounded by would be suicide bombers is it?
My own personal opinion is that the Egyptian authorities have a real over-powering fear of what might be discovered at some ancient Egyptian site. They've pretty much prohibited all foreign archaeologists and scientsist from working in the country. Only patriotic Egyptian archaeologists can work there, and all answer to the Director of Egyptian Antiquities, Zahi Hawass. They are also pushing hard for the return of all Egyptian artifacts to Egypt. Why are they suddenly become so insular? Well, Dr. Hawass himself is a fierce opponent of any suggestion that there were races in Egypt before the Egyptians themselves. It seems they will do anything to prevent an opposing notion coming to the fore. If that means closing sites, they'll do it, and if that means hiding away artifacts which contradict the prevailing history, those will disappear forever.
It could be that I'm singling Egypt out here, but very similar situations are playing out around the World, the remains of ancient kilted caucasians in China got them all worked up, and the discovery of the remains of giant caucasians in New Zealand got the Maori led government all hot under the collar, to the extent where you could be risking your life to try and acces the site. Interesting times we live in, but these people should learn that nothing stays secret forever!
