Scaling an Egyptian monument punishable by month in jail, LE100K fine

CAIRO – 25 October 2021: A person who mounts a monument without a permit shall be jailed for at least a month and/or fined L.E.10,000-100,000, according to a 2020 law.

A person who is found in an archeological site or a museum without a permit is also liable. The penalty would be doubled if the act was coupled with any form of “indecency.”

The law came to fill a gap legislation on the protection of monuments, deterring violators in a manner commensurate with their action, as such loopholes allowed for trafficking and tampering with Egyptian monuments, taking down palaces and antique buildings, as well as encroaching on lands affiliated with the Ministry of Antiquities.

A Russian-American Youtube star, Vitaly Zdorovetskiy, climbed a pyramid in Egypt in January 2020 and was jailed for five days. Danish photographer Andreas Hvid and a Danish girl accompanying him managed to climb the Great Pyramid in November 2018, where they photographed themselves naked, stirring the wrath of many Egyptians who considered the act offensive.

In January 2016, a German tourist scaled the Great Pyramid of Giza for a social media stunt, and was banned for life from entering Egypt.