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BREAKING NEWS (8th-15th July) Egypt´s Bent Pyramid opens to visitors 0/2
BREAKING NEWS (8th-15th July) Egypt´s Bent Pyramid opens to visitors
Egypt´s Bent Pyramid opens to visitors
Egypt has opened to visitors the Bent Pyramid near Cairo, in a move that is part of a wider push to boost tourism.
The Benty Pyramidat Dahshur was built for pharaoh Snefru about 2,600 BC, and was originally designed as a “true” Pyramid with the steep 54-degree angle.
But the pyramid was being built on soft, silty clay -and there was a problem with stability and subsidence. This was solved by adjusting the angle to a flatter 43 degrees, 147 ft (45m) up the face.
The angular shape contrasts with the straight sides of the Red Pyramid just to the north.
Visitors can now clamber down a 79m narrow tunnel fron a raised entrance on the Bent Pyramid´s northern side to reach two chambers deep inside the structure.
Archeologists also presented mummies, masks and tools discovered during continuing excavation works that began near the Dahshur pyramids last year.
Tourism is one of the leading sources of revenue for the country and crucial to Egypt´s economy since this sector can employ about 12% of Egypt´s worforce. Revenues can sometimes get $12.5 so that´s why they need to increase the tourism. During the last three years the sector dropped and with the opening of the Bent Pyramid, they expect to have an important increase in the number of visitors and give a wider push to boost tourism.