ABSTRACT
Before the age of mass travel, relatively few people actually saw the remarkable pyramids in Egypt. Many people saw images of the pyramids in newspaper and magazine articles or in films or television programs, but relatively few people traveled to Egypt. With the development of air travel and mass tourism, now Egypt and the pyramids are quite accessible, and travel to Egypt is relatively reasonable. Around ten million tourists visited Egypt in 2011, a much smaller count than usual caused largely by the Egyptian revolution. Without the political unrest, Egypt is among the most visited tourist destinations in the world. Most tourists come to Egypt to see its monuments, which makes Egypt a site largely of cultural and heritage tourism. It is estimated that Egypt houses around a third of the world’s most important cultural tourism sites. Though these include the Sphinx, Abu Simbel, the temples of Karnak, the Valley of the Kings, and the port of Alexandria, the most iconic site is the plateau of Giza adjacent to Cairo and its pyramids.
