A young German man put a lot on the line for the thrill of a lifetime – scaling the Great Pyramid of Giza, and filming the whole spectacle. An avid climber, the 18-year-old has braved some unforgettable heights. But the Egyptian police just couldn’t let this one slide.
Andrej Ciesielski broke a decades-old law by scaling the 4,500-year-old, 146-meter tall limestone structure of the Pyramid of Khufu, in Giza, last week. He filmed the whole thing.
“It took me around 8 minutes to reach the top. Climbing down took me 20 minutes. Safety first!” he wrote on his blog. Which saved the police the trouble of scraping Ciesielski off the ground, instead allowing him to be detained and questioned.
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“After a few minutes climbing, I started to attract a bit of attention and some of the security shouted to me to come down in Arabic,” he told The Telegraph.
“At first, they wanted to take me to the German embassy, but after a while I was released without anything further happening,” he told The Telegraph. “I had asked the locals what they thought of my attempt and they warned me that it was illegal to climb the pyramids, although I thought it would be fine, what with Egypt’s dependence on tourists.”
He thought the photos would be worth risking prison, he added.
“Before my trip I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to go to Cairo but I was happy that I went there. Together against terror. At the last day there was a terror attack near the pyramids. A few people have been killed. That made me even [more thoughtful].”
Ciesielski maintains an active online presence, maintaining a blog with pictures of his climbs in various parts of the world. He tells visitors to check back often for new adventures.