Japanese Strategies for Climbing the Great Pyramids

For nearly 5,000 years, the Great Pyramids of Egypt have instilled wonder and awe in mankind. In the last half a dozen centuries, they have also become a tempting lure for many to climb them – especially the Great Pyramid of Cheops (Khufu). Pyramid climbing is a temptation ever since the limestone casing of the Great Pyramid collapsed from an earthquake during the Middle Ages. Climbing had been permissible up until the 1980s when it was forbidden following the deaths of several climbers.

Despite the ban, the Great Pyramid is still climbed periodically, generally in the dead of night. Sometimes guards are bribed and guides hired to show intrepid climbers the way up. Other climbers prefer to forego paying unnecessary bribes and find ways of avoiding opportunistic guards. Interestingly enough, the leading nationality of these thrifty nocturnal climbers are the Japanese. The young Japanese travelers in Egypt have made pyramid climbing virtually a profession. They even have a handwritten book about how to do it in one of the hotels in Cairo.

“Never Give Up!” is the Japanese climber’s motto for surmounting the pyramid, or as it is written in their book: “Never Up Give!”
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