Remember in the years before 9/11, there were a series of terror attacks in Egypt.

a major massacre at the Luxor complex.

Always thought I would get there someday but I would never consider going there for this exact reason. Egypt is too destabilized and religious zealot terrorists are destroying its tourism industry. I fear that one of those crazies will blow up one of those pyramids someday.

Seems like that would take considerable force!

It might not take a lot.

I was at the pyramid at Chichen Itza Mexico. During that time you could climb the pyramids but the next year they closed them off because they were crumbling. The ones in Egypt are way older.

I.e., the Great Pyramid in Egypt is about 5 times the size of the one in Chichen Itza (and the smallest pyramid of those 3 in Giza, is twice the size of the one you went to).

A big difference is that the Egyptian pyramids are in the middle of the hot dry Sahara desert and the Mexican ones - at least the Mayan ones - are in or near tropical humid/rainy jungles. In fact, wikipedia had a pic of it just before it was excavated in the 1860s-



However where you have crumbling in Egypt is in Cairo proper, due to it being in the midst of the Nile Delta, so the ground water levels are crazy.

As a sidenote, I have also been to the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon near Mexico city (even those are much bigger than El Castillo) - it'll be 30 years ago next year since I was there too (yikes)!

I’m bookmarking!

I climbed Chichen Itza, the one in Mexico City and another in Uzmal. Awesome experience even.
The first time I went to Chichen Itza was also 30 years ago. My husband,son and I went in 2005. When I went in 1984 I vowed to return again there someday with my family. To this day my son talks about that experience of climbing that pyramid as one he will always remember. I also climbed the steps in the Duomoin Florence in 2017. While my body still holds up I will continue adventures. I’m am sad to not be able to go to Egypt though had a chance to go in 1992 but I found out I was pregnant and my husband didn’t want to risk my pregnancy.

Pretty cool and helps to establish how they stack up to the modern towers.

taken out of office.

Personally, I'd feel more safe there than I do daily in the USA with it's guns.

I live in SF and do not have a fear of guns. But when I visited Arizona recently seeing people going open carry I was a bit nervous and didn’t make a lot of eye contact with people like I do here at home.

and would agree. At least back then you had Egyptian military patrolling the airports with rifles. But most that I saw in uniform were very young. However the seeds of anti-Mubarak rancor had been planted and a few years later, all hell literally broke loose and the random attacks on tourists ratcheted up.

One of my siblings gives each niece or nephew an international trip for their high school graduation gift. Must be used prior to mid-20s. Oldest used his this year after his sophomore year of college. It’s not luxury travel- there are hostels and cheap flights and train rides, but the few nights in Luxor were a bit different. The hotelier was someone my brother knew and trusted and all ground transport was by a hired private driver. No tour buses or group tours.

I still didn’t breathe for the three days he was in that country.

Terrorist attacks are really much less common because the local populace doesn't want its economy hurt, and there's some backstreet justice being carried out against attackers.

But the city of Cairo is awash in garbage, and with the threats against the Christian minority (who are traditionally the garbage pickers) I think the trash problem is going to get worse.

It was my fourth or fifth time in Egypt, and every time I return, I'm sadder and sadder about its decline.

Why did the bus alter its scheduled route without notifying the authorities?
What a tragedy.