Two self-styled amateur archeologists from Germany, who filmed themselves scraping off pieces of Egypt's Great Pyramid in hopes of proving that the ancient wonder was built by people from the legendary city of Atlantis, are now facing possible criminal charges in their home country.
During a trip to Egypt in April 2013, Dominque Goerlitz and Stephan Erdmann, along with a German filmmaker, were granted access to parts of the Great Pyramid at Giza that are normally off-limits to the public. They smuggled their samples back to Germany with plans to produce a documentary.
Benjamin Radford, Live Science, says:
The Art Newspaper says that in November "a self-posted trailer on YouTube for a documentary detailing and revealing their exploits, drew almost universal condemnation and angered Egyptian authorities. After the controversy broke, the German embassy in Cairo released a statement emphasising that neither Goerlitz nor Erdmann were associated with the embassy or the German Archaeological Institute."
In addition to the three Germans, six Egyptians are being held in connection with the case, including several guards and inspectors from the Egyptian Antiquities Ministry who allowed the men into the pyramid, Live Science says.
The Art Newspaper writes:
In December, Goerlitz and Erdmann apologize for the vandalism in a letter addressed to Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities, "offering to pay compensation for the damage and stressing that they did not mean harm to the pyramid. Egypt's head of antiquities, Mohamed Ibrahim, has so far rejected their apology."
As Radford points out:
Source: The Two Way
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