Egypt: Pyramids Warning By United States ‘Baseless’

An Egyptian pyramids warning is at the heart of a scuffle between United States and Egyptian officials, who disagree about the scope of the threat posed to American tourists who visit the popular pyramids at Giza.

On Friday, the US Embassy published a warning to American tourists which essentially advised them not to visit Giza’s pyramids — for many, the main or only purpose of a tourist trip to Egypt in the first place:

“In recent weeks, the U.S. Embassy has become aware of an increasing number of incidents at or near the Giza Pyramids. The majority of these incidents are attributed to over-aggressive vendors, though the degree of aggressiveness in some cases is closer to criminal conduct. Other more serious incidents have been reported involving vehicles nearing the pyramids, with angry groups of individuals surrounding and pounding on the vehicles — and in some cases attempting to open the vehicle’s doors…”

As a frequent traveler, I read that to mean that if you don’t pay off a “trusted” guide to keep off the nuisance vendors or arrive as a member of a huge bus tour with its own security, you may be threatened. In other words, independent travelers may want to choose a different destination.

Needless to say, the government of Egypt, which is trying to become more welcoming to tourists again in the aftermath of the 2011 revolution, is not too happy.

According to their side of the story, the Egyptian pyramids warning is bogus and the area is provided with plenty of visible security. On Saturday Egypt’s Antiquities’ Ministry bluntly called the US Embassy message “baseless.”

I haven’t traveled to Egypt myself, but I do know that US State Department warnings are widely considered ridiculous by most frequent travelers. I myself looked into warnings issued by the State Department before traveling to Kenya in 2004 and Bolivia on two more recent occasions, and “baseless” was as good a word for their warnings as any.

However, the current Giza pyramids warning comes from the US Embassy there on the ground, not from the US State Department.

In the end, only you as a traveler can decide how seriously to take the latest Egyptian pyramids warning.

[Egypt pyramids photo by Ricardo Liberato via Wikimedia Commons]