Egyptian authorities have launched an investigation on the authenticity of a video of a couple scaling and posing naked at what appears to be the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Egypt’s Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Anany filed a memo on Friday, Dec. 7 to look into the viral video of Danish photographer Andreas Hvid and an unidentified woman, first posted via YouTube on Dec. 5, as reported by Al-Ahram last Sunday, Dec. 9.
The investigation seeks to verify the authenticity of the video, particularly how the two were able to climb the pyramid and if they filmed a pornographic video.
“I demanded that experts be tasked with checking the video and determine whether they are real or fake,” El-Anany told the members of parliament’s media, culture and the antiquities committee on Sunday, as per report. “The prosecution authorities will tell Egyptians how the two tourists were able to scale the Great Pyramid of [Giza], whether the video is real or fake, and negligent officials will be brought to justice.”
Climbing the pyramids in Egypt is punishable by law.
Meanwhile, the director general of Giza Plateau, Ashraf Mohi, told the publication in a separate report on Friday that the video was fake, citing heavy security at the pyramids after the complex closes at 5 p.m. He added that the brightly lit surroundings in the video further prove that the scene is not real, because the area should have already been immersed in darkness at the time the said video was supposedly filmed.
Hvid, whose specialty includes posting photos from high vantage points combined with nudity, took down the video after it drew flak from Egyptians. However, he reposted it again on Dec. 9.
The video, which Hvid said was filmed in late November this year, showed him and a woman supposedly scaling the Great Pyramid of Giza. When they reached the top, the woman can be seen taking off her top.
Hvid also posted on his blog a photo of them, appearing to be naked and in a missionary position atop the pyramid. The photo has gone viral as well and has been reposted on social media.
Naked on the pyramids “screenshot” from Andreas Hvid pic.twitter.com/ec1vl10goj
— Dark_blue (@has_nolimit) December 7, 2018
“For many years I had dreamed of climbing the great pyramid. The idea of making a ‘nude shoot’ up there had also existed for some time,” Hvid told Ekstra Bladet on Friday, naming the said photo shoot “pyramid f*ck.”
Apparently, he originally tried to scale the pyramid with a Norwegian friend. Unfortunately, they were caught by authorities.
When his Norwegian friend departed Egypt, Hvid asked one of the Danish models he is friends with to replace his Norwegian friend. He also clarified that nothing happened between him and the model atop the Great Pyramid of Giza.
“It’s a set ‘shoot,’” Hvid said in the report. “We did not have sex and we never had it.” Kate Matriano/JB
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