Egyptian authorities weren’t happy last week when a viral video seemed to show a couple getting busy atop the Great Pyramid of Giza. They’re still not happy this week, and they’re making arrests to express their continued displeasure.
The Guardian and Egypt Today report that two people have been arrested by the country’s Interior Ministry, though it’s not photographer Andreas Hvid and the “friend” who apparently scaled the pyramid, stripped naked, and embraced while overlooking Cairo, videotaping and taking photos of themselves as they went.
Instead, a camel driver who works in the area near the pyramids has reportedly been detained, accused of helping Hvid and the young woman on Nov. 29 get up the pyramid; he’s said to have charged them about $225.
Also believed to be in custody, per Ahram: a woman who’s said to have known the couple online and helped bring the two together with the camel driver.
Hvid has since spoken with a Danish newspaper and says this was his third try at climbing the pyramid—and first successful attempt, in just 25 minutes—though he stresses that he and the woman didn’t engage in any sexual activity while they were up there. He says they simply posed for a risque photo.
Hvid also says he wasn’t trying to insult or offend anyone, and he adds that because of the outrage, he won’t be returning to Egypt anytime soon for fear of being arrested himself.
No word on who the Danish friend who accompanied him is. (A German teen illegally scaled the same pyramid in 2016.)
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