Relaxed Obama tours pyramids amid tight security


CAIRO (AFP) — Egyptian security forces mounted an unprecedented security
operation as US President Barack Obama strolled around the Great
Pyramids of Giza on Thursday.

The president appeared relaxed in short sleeves as he was guided round
the world-renowned site by Egyptian antiquities supremo Zahi Hawass,
with a visibly chatty Obama at one point putting his arm around Hawass's
shoulders.

The visit followed Obama's much-anticipated speech to the Islamic world
from Cairo University, during which he sought to open a new era with the
world's 1.5 billion Muslims.

Hawass was quoted by state news agency MENA as saying the visit followed
"unprecedented preparations and security arrangements."

He took Obama to the feet of the enigmatic sphinx, an area usually off
limits to visitors.

"This is the longest official visit to the pyramids," Hawass said, at
around 75 minutes. Almost every official visiting Cairo travels to the
pyramids, which rise up from the desert outside the Egyptian capital.

The pyramids and the sphinx are considered some of the greatest man-made
structures in history.

The largest of the three pyramids, believed to be the tomb of fourth
dynasty King Cheops which was built over 4,500 years ago, is the only
one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World that remains relatively
intact.

The site has been a tourist attraction since ancient Greek times with
the US president also visiting the millennia-old "solar" boat in which
the soul of ancient pharaohs symbolically travelled through the heavens
with the sun god.

The boat was painstakingly reassembled from 1,224 pieces of Lebanese
cedar wood found buried in the sand decades ago.

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Hot damn, tour guided by Dr. Zahi Hawass. I am jealous.