These monuments of ancient Egypt have withstood the ravages of sand and time for four millennia, but now the modern woes of traffic, tourists, pollution – and too much camel dung – are taking their toll. They have survived sandstorms and desert stillness, the fury of kings and the ravages of time, but the legendary Pyramids of Giza are endangered now – and the agent of their peril is a gloomy Egyptian stable-owner by the name of Hesham el-Ghabri.Or so you might think."They forbid us to ride around the pyramids," grouses the owner of the TWA Stable ("Camel and Horse Riding"), one of countless such tourist-dependent operations clustered in the shadows of the brooding Sphinx and the three celebrated Pyramids of Giza. "They accuse of us being terrorists. They say we are going to bomb the pyramids.""They" are high officials at Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities – the government body responsible for administering the Pyramids of Giza along with the rest of this country's innumerable ancient monuments – and they have not actually accused el-Ghabri and his ilk of being terrorists, although perhaps they might as well have.

"The people here have been handed a gold platter – the pyramids," storms Dr. Zahi Hawass, secretary general of the council. "Instead of guarding it, they (defecate) in it."His solution?Ban them all – the touts, the hawkers, the confidence men, the camel-for-hire stable-owners, and all the other privateering opportunists who have been a fixture here for decades but whose continued presence may be endangering the integrity of the monuments, while contributing immense quantities of camel dung."It's like a zoo here," says Hawass. "How can I make this place seem divine?"

View: Full Article | Source: The Star

So if they start by baning the camels and the traders and hawkers, how long before they ban motor vechicles from driving tourists to the area. now i dont know the distance from the city to the pyramids. but maybe this is all part of hawass plan to stop people from going to the pyramid site, where ive heard him mention before that tourism is ruining the pyramids.

The distance is less then 300 meters from the Pyramids to the city. Like the story said, you would never guess that, since the brochures show them in a desolate desert with a setting sun, giving the sense they are away from all civilization. The best part of the article is said at the end " The people are angry, but the pyramids are more important than the people." Very powerful words, and so true. For without the pyramids, Giza turns into more of a ruin, and forgotten memories. There are still so much more we can learn from this civilization, and we cannot let something that has lasted so many thousands of years be destroyed, just because tourists are interested in exploiting it for there own curiousity.

The pyramids were made to be very sacred, and having such pollution and traffic going through it's gates, utterly disipates any sense of glamour or wonder from these monuments. Also, the dangers now of visiting the site is not without warning. Guides that hunt tourists like hawks just hoping to exploit and steal there money. It's a beautiful experience that has been destroyed by the greed of the city.