In 1997, November 17, 58 international
tourists and 4 Egyptians were killed by
Islamic terrorists in
Luxor. It happened in the morning at the parking lot of the
Temple of Hatshepsut (Deir al-Bahri)on the westbank of the
Nile, near the
valley of the kings.
Because
Egypts
economy depends mostly on tourism, this was a sad day in
history.
Tourism dropped,
people from around the world were afraid to come to
Egypt. The Egyptian
people did everything over the years to attract the tourists again; they had the opera "
Aida" played at the
Pyramids at Giza (near
Cairo) and they offer the tourists huge and beautiful lightshows at the
sphinx and at the
Karnak temples (near
Luxor).It helped, because in 1999 figures show that the number of tourists visiting
Egypt is rising again.
During my visit at
Luxor in June 2000, I could still see the impact of the massacre of 1997; policemen and militairy people standing near and at tourist attractions, such as
Luxor Temple and the whole westbank of the
Nile at
Luxor, wearing big guns.