Egypt’s Tourism and Antiquities Police arrested three Spanish tourists on Sunday after the men allegedly tried to photograph themselves nude behind the Great Pyramid of Giza, according to Al-Masry Al-Youm.
Officers on routine patrol saw “three young men in a suspicious position near the Pyramid of Khufu,” the incident report stated. The police seized the tourists’ mobile phones and took them to a nearby station for questioning.
“We removed our trousers and underwear as an unconventional souvenir for life,” the detainees told investigators. “We did not intend to offend Egyptians and did not expect that our actions would be interpreted as indecent behavior in a public place.”
Police escorted the men back to their hotel, searched their devices, found the images and transferred the case to the Public Prosecution. Prosecutors examined the photographs, heard testimony from arresting officers and ordered the men released on bail of 5,000 Egyptian pounds each (about USD 160), an official document reviewed by the Jerusalem Post showed.
Sunday’s episode followed several nudity-related incidents at the Giza site. In late 2018 a video circulated of a couple climbing a pyramid and ending the ascent naked. In March 2017 a Belgian model posed nude on the plateau and later at Karnak Temple, and in 2015 a German tourist was expelled for scaling a pyramid.
“The laws in our country allow such photos, and we did it for fun,” the Spaniards told prosecutors through an interpreter.
Produced with the assistance of a news-analysis system.