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Egyptians Turned Away From Pyramids To Make Way For Foreign Tourists
GIZA, Egypt, March 7 (News Agencies) - Security forces turned back hundreds of angry Egyptians from the main entrance to their Great Pyramids on a major Muslim holiday here Wednesday to "prevent overcrowding," while busloads of western tourists were ushered through.
A police lieutenant said he was under orders to turn away holidaying Egyptians "to make space for the tourists and prevent overcrowding" on the Giza plateau until celebrations for the Eid Al-Adha feast end on Saturday.
Police set up five checkpoints at the gate to the 4,500-year-old national monuments by the five-star Mena House Hotel, diverting Egyptians and other Arabs to another entrance several kilometers (miles) away through the desert.
"They're treating us like dirt," said Mohammed Ali Hussein, who had traveled 200 kilometers (125 miles) from Damietta on the Mediterranean coast to show his family the three pyramids at Giza, near Cairo, for the first time.
Millions of Egyptians head to Cairo's gardens, Nile-bank walks and ancient monuments, many of them taking picnics with them, on the Islamic feast when Muslim families around the world are expected to slaughter a sheep.
Security forces tried calmly to disperse the crowds of disgruntled Egyptians who had gathered at the main gate, many of them complaining they had no private transport to get to the alternative entrance on the Faiyum road.
"Look at the buses full of foreigners," said Magdi Ala Hussein, in his fifties, one of hundreds who were denied access on Wednesday, the third day of the feast. "They let them in even without even stopping them."
"Why don't they turn the foreigners back. We don't have hired vehicles like them, so why don't they make them go," he added.
Egyptians usually pay one pound (3.85 dollars) to enter the plateau compared with 20 pounds for foreigners.
A bus full of Palestinians and other Arabs was also stopped from driving up the Mena House entrance to the towering pharaonic tombs.
The opposition Al-Wafd newspaper criticized the segregation in a front page article entitled "Foreigners Only" beside a picture of a handful of western tourists strolling around the foot of an otherwise deserted pyramid.
"The people are heading to other areas to ride donkeys in protest at this government oppression," the paper wrote, complaining that the pyramids were barely visible from the Faiyum road entrance.
"The area was a traditional place for simple Egyptians to enjoy the feast, but now its empty, reserved only for tourists," it added.
Eid Al-Adha, or the feast of the sacrifice, marks the high point of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.
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