Egypt Pyramid Closes Ahead Of 11/11/11

By By BEN HUBBARD, Associate Press

CAIRO -- Egypt's antiquities authority closed the largest of the Giza pyramids Friday following rumors that groups would try to hold spiritual ceremonies on the site at 11:11 A.M. on Nov. 11, 2011.

The authority's head Mustafa Amin said in a statement Friday that the pyramid of Khufu, also known as Cheops, would be closed to visitors until Saturday morning for "necessary maintenance."

The closure follows a string of unconfirmed reports in local media that unidentified groups would try to hold "Jewish" or "Masonic" rites on the site to take advantage of mysterious powers coming from the pyramid on the rare date.

Amin called all reports of planned ceremonies at the site "completely lacking in truth."

The complex's director, Ali al-Asfar, said Friday that an Egyptian company requested permission last month to hold an event called "hug the pyramid," in which 120 people would join hands around the ancient burial structure.

The authority declined the request a week ago, al-Asfar said, but that did not stop concerned Egyptians from starting internet campaigns to prevent the event from taking place.

"It has been a big cause now on Facebook and Twitter for many people to write about," al-Asfar said.

The closure was unrelated to the rumors, he said, adding that the pyramid needed maintenance after the large number of visitors during the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday last week.

The rest of the complex, which includes two other large pyramids, numerous tombs and the Sphinx, remained open Friday, though security appeared to be heavier than usual.

Dozens of police officers and soldiers were posted throughout the complex. Some patrolled on camel-back. One soldier stood next to his machine gun near a souvenir shop selling miniature pyramids.

Speaking by phone from the pyramids after 11:11 had passed, al-Asfar said he'd seen nothing out of the ordinary.

"Everything is normal," he said. "The only thing different is the closure of the Khufu pyramid."

Khufu is credited with building the Giza complex's largest pyramid, now one of Egypt's main tourist attractions. Khufu founded the 4th Dynasty around 2680 B.C. and ruled Egypt for 23 years.

Below is a slideshow of photos from the Giza pyramids:

Comments

[chaya]

03:50 PM on 01/06/2012

Good call. I know how we Jews are, running all over the place holding mystical magical ceremonies at monuments in Muslim countries because our calendars are showing some kind of cute synchronicity. Masons, too. But really, you can't tell us apart. Abracadabra and all that.

Silly.

[ScudAg56]

02:52 AM on 11/15/2011

Can we see some before and after photos of the maintenance work that was done? I bet half the light bulbs are still burned out.

[zhustlah]

12:23 AM on 11/15/2011

If you haven't been to Egypt, it's hard to even begin to explain... their whole modern day society is built on tourism. They don't care about the artifacts... they just care about the tourist $$$. The only thing they seem to care about more than tourism is religion. I'm sure they didn't want any "crazy" New Agers gumming up their "rush them in, shoo them out" pyramid tours.

I met Muslims, Coptic Christians, and even some Nubians; some were open and interested in talking about their beliefs, but overall they are a very religious people... and the Muslims were much more bold about what they thought. If you aren't Muslim, you are a joke to them - including the ancient Egyptians.

[Macready]

07:46 AM on 11/14/2011

It's better to close the Great Pyramid to keep it safe . . .

[UpYouMighty]

11:06 PM on 11/13/2011

What's terrible is that the Pyramids are Black African sites today being managed by non-Blacks and no one but the "African Blood Siblings" seem to freely educate thereon.

[mark1966]

07:36 PM on 11/14/2011

egyptions are not black.just because a country is in africa doesnt mean the people are black.it is not a black african site.

[theiccemann]

08:17 PM on 11/14/2011

You might want to do some extensive research, and stop reading comic books and those misinformed school books. There's all kinds of evidence.

.. and, the Pyramid is much older than 2 or 3,000 years. It's well over 10,000 years old. Do the research. Don't just espouse what you hear others spew.

[UpYouMighty]

08:51 PM on 11/14/2011

It's worth noting that Herodotus himself said that the Egyptians were Black. But beside from that, look at the extent of Ethiopia--Ethiopians are "Black" people in Ancient Greek culture. The Ethiopians stretch from Asia to Africa. If Egypt is in between it has to be Black. Finally, look at your very Bible. "Originals" or "Black people" are Hamites. Both Egypt and Ethiopia (Kemet and Kush) are children of Ham.

So there are three White sources in your face: The Father of History called Egyptians Black, the Ancient Greeks put Egypt between the extent of Ethiopia and the Bible says that Egypt and Ethiopia are children of the Black race.

Beside from all this--there are a plethora of African sources claiming Egypt: heck, Egypt itself does!

[ScudAg56]

02:59 AM on 11/15/2011

I lived in Egypt 3 years. They do not consider themselves "black" - I guarantee that. Even the ancient Egyptians clearly drew themselves as different-looking from the Nubians in the South and the Fertile Crescent peoples of the Northeast. It was an entirely unique culture that borrowed little from those northeast of them and absolutely nothing from the south. The tiny pyramids of Sudan were built over one thousand years after the Egyptians stopped building theirs.

[UpYouMighty]

12:31 PM on 11/15/2011

ScudAg56--do you know that in ~711 Muslims invaded Egypt? Do you know that in ~30 BC Rome invaded Egypt? Do you know that in ~305 BC Greece invaded Egypt? Do you know that in ~525 BC Persia invaded Egypt? Of course TODAY Egypt isn't Black--but you're ignoring 2500 years of foreign invasion.

As to Egyptians clearly drew themselves different--they didn't! The Egyptians drew their men and women differently, red and yellow respectively. The Greeks did too. They drew their men as Black and their women as White. Use your head.

As to entirely unique culture--there's no such thing. Egypt took from the South--that's their own story. Osiris is the founder of Egypt and the Egyptians regarded him as Nubian.

Your comment on Egyptians stopping to build pyramids say enough. The Pyramids were Sudanese not any of Egypt's other neighbors'.

[H P]

12:17 PM on 11/13/2011

Egyptian Pyramids, were not built based on the Roman- Gregorian calendar thus the date 11-11-11 means nothing.
and guess what, nothing happened.

[Vanderbil Covington]

11:20 AM on 11/13/2011

I laud the Department of Egyptian Antiqities for protecting the complex from crazed tourism. Now, if only would tell the world the truth of its origins. NONE of the Egyptian kings were responsible for building the pyramids, nor were the structures built as burial chambers. Egyptian kings of the fourth dynasty tried to lay claim to them tens of thousands of years AFTER they were built by a civilization that occupied the region long before the Egyptians. Historians claim the structures were the final results of earlier attempts such as the "step" and "bent" pyramids, but the exact opposite was true. They tried and failed to duplicate the complex with the aforementioned attempts. One has only to ponder why Egyptians of the Fifth and Third Dynasties could not create such structures

[UpYouMighty]

10:59 PM on 11/13/2011

You have an interesting though false record. Egypt was a marsh before Osiris and others cleared it.

[Vanderbil Covington]

04:52 AM on 11/14/2011

You are partially correct. Egypt was a fertile plain at the end of the last ice age, 10,500 years ago. However, Osiris commissioned the structure when the orginal foundation was laid when the descending passage aligned with the star Draconis, 73,000 years ago. The age and purpose of the Giza pyramid complex was to build a testimony to a history the ETs as they laid claim to this planet. The original name was; Temple of Osiris. It was built as a monument to reflect the home of Earth’s “gods” in the cosmos of Orion as the image would appear on the ground at the time of the planet’s processional cycle of 26,000 years -- just short of three cycles in the past from today. The Sphinx, (before it was re-carved) was to pay a zodiogical homage to Osiris’ consort, Isis. Weathering of the complex indicates it was created long before the region was desert

[G-11]

02:22 AM on 11/14/2011

Definitely agree with you. Which is why, to understand the exact precision things like the Giza Pyramid or obelisk and the statute or Ramesses II in Luxor were built with, one can't help but think that something more then a chisel and hammer were used. So who had this advanced technology?

[Vanderbil Covington]

05:41 AM on 11/14/2011

One of the biggest mysteries to modern historians is the purpose of the Sphinx. The structure was built to orient the start and end points of the twelve Zodialogical divisions of the planet which denote cosmological influences of each quadrant. Sciences of this very real art are now long lost and far too complex to explain here, but they could predict future destinies of those living in these regions. True astrological and alchemic wisdom of the ancients have been diluted into a pedantic misunderstood subject of ridicule. Indeed, modern humans are still in the dark ages

[kjmayberg]

08:48 AM on 11/13/2011

I think this puts Israel's unwillingness to give up the West Bank in perspective. It's not just the hatred of Israel but the hatred of Jews that drives Arab animosity towards the Jewish state. When given an opportunity, the Arabs will attack Israel to wipe it out. And has been the case, since Israel is only 18 miles wide at the middle, they will attack there. The West Bank is the buffer between tiny Israel and a hostile Muslim world that runs from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

[Macready]

07:48 AM on 11/14/2011

you are so wrong . . the Pyramids are the last of the 7 wonders of the ancient world . . . they have to be protected and if there is even a whiff or trouble then the authorities were right to close it . . .

I would like to add no one should be allowed to perform religious rights there . . unless they are ancient Egyptians . . then we can all learn . . otherwise . . . keep them out

[chaya]

03:54 PM on 01/06/2012

Did you read the article? Jews and Masons were blamed by the media for wanting to hold secret rites.

[lsg0013]

07:03 AM on 11/13/2011

When I read the headline, I thought maybe the pyramids were going to be closed because they are starting to deteriorate too much both from being too old and from people clambering on them and from all the smog in Cairo.

[lsg0013]

06:57 AM on 11/13/2011

"One soldier stood next to his machine gun near a souvenir shop selling miniature pyramids."

I wonder if you upend one of those miniature pyramids, it says (in Arabic) "Made in China"

[zhustlah]

11:34 PM on 11/14/2011

Probably. Much of the tourist junk comes from China. And they'll lie straight to your face and tell you it's basalt when it's really just black resin.

[Talossa]

01:32 AM on 11/13/2011

Paranoia about Jews is one thing -- paranoia about Jews among people who can vote is even worse.

[clmail40]

10:59 PM on 11/12/2011

AOL doesn't post this story until 11-12

11-11-11 is an afterthought.. way to stay current

[ken95403]

09:56 PM on 11/12/2011

I still wish somebody would open up the pyramids. Even just one. I'm not talking about bombing it to rubble, just some kind of dignified opening. The world has a right to see what is in there. It's human history. ( maybe the former owners were foreclosed upon.) If it were opened, there might be a sign.Everything has to go! statues, coffins, rugs , vases, at rock bottom prices! )

[Justin Parker]

05:36 PM on 11/14/2011

You can go inside them you know. The interior is open, and was emptied thousands of years ago by tomb robbers.

[Odrade]

04:19 AM on 11/15/2011

But what about the mummies? Is it safe?

[Relpo Miraculous]

09:18 PM on 11/12/2011

Egypt is a waste of time and money. Visit Israel instead.

[pwih1987]

10:04 PM on 11/12/2011

Why? So I can witness little kids with rocks being shot down? I will pass. Israel will fall due to its own aggressive arrogance. The people of Palestine will become a part of the UN. And soon the UN will be undergoing very significant changes. And in the end Israel will be known as forever in history as the terror of the world. Which it is known they are now but they are showing everyone it is true. I.E pushing for a illogical war with Iran.

[1tenn]

10:35 PM on 11/12/2011

any political idiology that blows up school buses with children in them has no right to even exist.... and no i'm not jewish.

[dannybuild]

06:08 AM on 11/13/2011

What rubbish. Everybody knows the vile venom that spews out of the mouths of the polys in Iran against Israel. As for your claims about Israel, its shows how little you know or pretend to know about the truth.

[notIvy431]

09:23 PM on 11/14/2011

No thank you! I saw the fear in the eyes of the people in Jordan when near Israel border.

[dixdarlin]

08:45 PM on 11/12/2011

Which was it Jewish or Masonic.. They are not the same!

[Talossa]

01:33 AM on 11/13/2011

In the minds of conspiracy nuts, they are the same.