The pyramids of the Guizeh plateau, a flagship site for Egyptian tourism near Cairo, reopened to the public on Wednesday after having closed in March due to the epidemic of new coronavirus, an AFP journalist found.
Egypt decided in mid-June to reopen its airspace and part of its tourist sites, in order to revive tourism, a sector which recorded heavy financial losses during the three months of closure due to the Covid disease -19.
A few dozen tourists were present on the site of the vast royal necropolis on Wednesday.
“We came to the pyramids today because it just reopened and it was closed for a long time,” Ashiana Love, an Australian tourist, told AFP, adding: “the energy is very special after the closure” .
According to Fatma Baioumy, tourist guide on the Guizeh plateau, the site is “safe”. “There are a lot of protective measures (…) they disinfect everything, visitors, bags,” she said.
After three months of closure and a night curfew to combat the Covid-19, Egypt has begun implementing progressive reopening measures.
Airports reopened on Wednesday, as did the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square in Cairo. The reopening of other tourist spots will be done gradually, the government announced in mid-June.
If international flights are now resuming to Egypt, only three governorates, known for their seaside resorts, are authorized to welcome tourists: the Red Sea, South Sinai (east) and Marsa Matrouh (north).
Tourism, the heavyweight of the Egyptian economy, has long been moribund after the years of political instability following the revolt of 2011.
For this sector, which has seen a gradual return of foreign visitors to the banks of the Nile and the Red Sea since 2017, the Covid-19 pandemic marked another blow.
Since March, authorities have taken steps to stem the spread of the virus, including the suspension of air traffic, the closure of schools, religious and tourist sites.
Egypt, a country of 100 million people, has officially registered more than 68,000 cases of new coronavirus, including around 3,000 deaths, according to official figures.
Since late May, authorities have reported more than 1,000 new infections daily, and the doctors’ union has warned of a “possible total collapse” of the health system.
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