German tourist climbs to top of Great Pyramid, captures rare footage of ascent, and photos

Well this is pretty darn cool, if not entirely stupid and illegal...

Not too often we get to see close up views from the top of the GP.

A German teen broke decades-old laws and risked prison after he illegally scaled an Egyptian pyramid so that he could post the photos and videos of the risky adventure to his blog.

Andrej Cieselski, an 18-year-old from Munich, illegally climbed the 4,500-year-old Great Pyramid in broad daylight earlier this month for the sake of the breathtaking photos and videos he took while on top.

www.nydailynews.com...

I'd like to know whose engraving that is from 1899..



Nice view of the boat pits:



Video of the climb... there are some interesting things on the way up.
And it seems kind of easy to climb. Apparently he did it in 8 min.



More photos and some comments by this guy can be found on his blog

a reply to: PhotonEffect

I can just imagine Zahi Hawass having a meltdown over this violation and trespassing onto his pyramids.

Certainly is a good way to get yourself into the history books and a global name for antiestablishmentarianism.

Awesome.

a reply to: PhotonEffect

He should have taken a paraglider. Then he could have flown down.

I got mixed emotions about this, now any idiot like myself will think I can do that too, plus I need a knife to carb indigent waz here...

And how could I forget to pick a souvenir while I'm there, so knife + pick.

Picking is hard, so a few Aussie size beers too, the cans will look fine next to indigent waz here.

And if I have the pick and the beer why stop there, I could try to enter and find all that secret alien stuff the stablishment don't want the commoners to know.

A fedora and whip too, it was usefull for Indy, the sun must be pretty bad, and will be a nice touch for when the Egyptians hang me

a reply to: Indigent
You bring up a good point. Social media have ruined "secret spots."

You do a cool thing, or find a cool location. So what do you do? Tell the world about it, of course! Selfies and youtube and vimes, oh my!

Next time you go you'll find 600 people at that awesome waterfall.

Lovely even though illegal

a reply to: kumiho
Sort of, I guess. Visibility ain't great.

Ah yes. Breathe that clean, fresh air!
*cough* *wheeze*

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: Indigent
You bring up a good point. Social media have ruined "secret spots."

You do a cool thing, or find a cool location. So what do you do? Tell the world about it, of course! Selfies and youtube and vimes, oh my!

Next time you go you'll find 600 people at that awesome waterfall.

Yup...

There is hardly a 'special' spot anymore.
I honestly only take photo's of something that really truly blows me away. I took a photo of myself on the final hole in St. Andrews, that was 2 years ago, and it was something special. But nothing since really.
But I guess this truly did blow this guy away, so why not document it? I would.

the video was pretty cool to be honest, I've never really seen anything like it, but from here on out how many people are gonna try and climb the pyramids if this gets viral?

Chichen Itza got swamped with tourists to the point where they banned people even going within 20 meters of the most popular ruins to protect the features. I feel climbing on the Giza structures should still be banned and illegal to be honest.

a reply to: strongfp

I feel climbing on the Giza structures should still be banned and illegal to be honest.

It is. And breaking the law in Egypt would seem to be a really bad idea.
But it isn't the first time this has happened. Nor will it be the last.
www.dailymail.co.uk...

originally posted by: Sublimecraft
a reply to: PhotonEffect

I can just imagine Zahi Hawass having a meltdown over this violation and trespassing onto his pyramids.

Hawass hasn't been in charge of antiquities in 3 years.

Man, I always wanted to do that !!

....watched it several times....and was struck by the 'porous; looking......down right ragged, holey stones that were shown.

Did the stone weather so much, or did they use some less than solid stone on day one ?

and the brick sections....patches?

a reply to: frayed1
The pyramids were original covered with a limestone facade. Most of it was scavenged (stolen) over time.

a reply to: Phage

oh, I knew that wasn't the outer layer, but the under lying stone, I thought would be a better 'grade'....not dressed, but at least solid....

a reply to: frayed1
It is after all, just very large pile of stones. Why spent more time and energy (expense) than necessary on what no one was supposed to see?

Awesome!!

I noticed bricks on that climb behind the large stones...

Very cool

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: frayed1
It is after all, just very large pile of stones. Why spent more time and energy (expense) than necessary on what no one was supposed to see?

... "a cool way to stack rocks"

I visited the pyramids of Giza back in 2009. Amazing experience. Me and my group of three paid off the cops to climb the great pyramid a fourth of the way up. They let us climb and take out pictures. It was a amazing. I def. tried to climb to the top but the cops started freaking out and made me stop. They were building a giant, ugly cement wal around the whole complex to prevent this from happening at the time. So ugly, so not what you want to see at the pyramids. But anything to make a buck. This guy went out of his way to get this done. They have eyes all over the complex. Imagine climbing the Lincoln memorial in DC. Equally difficult. Glad somebody got to achieve greatness lol

a reply to: Phage

I did this in January 1972 along with a couple of hundred people. There was a steady stream of people going up and down the northeast corner, almost all Egyptians. I joined them. I stumbled and almost fell to my death coming down. It was an unforgettable experience, though. I'm glad I did it, and also glad it is no longer permitted. Too dangerous.

www.youtube.com...

During a 2012 party several people stood on top. I was looking for the video and I found this one with an interesting comment. A steady stream of people going up and down.

Kid is a selfish piece of #, I hope they lock him up for 3 years

a reply to: exsanguination45
3 years in an Egyptian prison. Yikes.

But it seems he got away with it.