With Tourists Scarce, Egypt Struggles To Maintain Heritage

CAIRO, Jan 3, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Jan, 2017 ) - With a shaky economy following years of unrest and a huge drop in tourists, Egypt is struggling to preserve its fabled archaeological heritage.

From Alexandria on the Mediterranean to the Great Pyramid of Giza -- the last of the Seven Wonders of the World -- and Aswan to the south, the North African country is home to impressive ancient monuments.

For years, the sites were able to rely on a steady stream of ticket sales to finance their upkeep. But since Egypt's 2011 revolution, the number of tourists visiting the country has dwindled, leaving authorities scrambling to make up for lost revenues.

"Since January 2011, our revenues have fallen sharply, which had a strong effect on the state of Egyptian monuments," Antiquities Minister Khaled el-Enany told AFP. From more than 15 million in 2010, the number of tourists visiting Egypt dropped to 6.3 million in 2015.