Something I learned recently: for a long time, it was perfectly acceptable (encouraged, even) for tourists to climb the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.

It was like “a thing you might do” (if you were bold enough) on your visit to the region. You could pay guides to assist you in navigating the stones, which ranged from two to six feet high. Approximately 450 feet up to the flat plateau, then back down (at a 52-degree angle).

Mostly, just for bragging rights and the spectacular view over the Nile Valley, Delta, palms, and desert.

Formally dressed gentlemen and ladies did it. Famous people did it.

Prince Albert in 1862, Mark Twain in 1867.

Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later, King Edward VIII), is said to have carried a golf club and balls to the summit, where he hit the balls toward the golf course below. He described the climb as “rather serious and difficult.”

Yes, people fell. And died. All the time.

Estimates say there were approximately 1,600 fatalities catalogued over 200 years before the practice was banned in the 1980s and made officially illegal in 2020, with violations subject to serious fines and potential imprisonment.

Security today is vastly more substantial than it was in the Victorian era, including fencing and surveillance. https://www.cbsnews.com/…/giza-pyramids-go-tourist…/…

This idea of scaling an ancient monument, one of the Wonders of the World, particularly one so formidable and patently dangerous, as a casual tourist activity? It seems nuts, doesn’t it?

One of those things that makes you go, “Hmmm.”

And now you know.

(You probably already knew. I didn’t. Thought I’d share these fun facts with you. You’re welcome.)