2020 was billed as the year to return to Egypt. Cairo's much-delayed Grand Egyptian Museum was set to open this year full of repatriated treasures, resorts and flight routes reported increasing inbound bookings following a rocky period for tourism. That was until Pandemic travel restrictions killed the rebounding tourism industry, dead.
The Giza pyramids which were set to welcome up to 15 million tourists this year are left unvisited. In response local authorities have decided to take the opportunity to give these wonders of the ancient world a deep clean.
"We started the first phase of disinfection and there are other phases. We are in the process of disinfecting all tourist sites, though the artifacts themselves require specific materials and (cleaning) must be carried out by a specialized team of excavators," said the director general for Giza's pyramids, Ashraf Mohie El-Din.
However, he was quick to point out they were not cleaning the ancient structures themselves. Just disinfecting areas which might have come into contact with tourists.