/ 28 October 1999

PYRAMIDS CLOSED TO MILLENNIUM REVELLERS

EGYPT’s Great Pyramids and Sphinx will be closed to the public on December 30 1999 for security reasons as a giant party rocks the nearby desert. Pyramids Director Zahi Hawass said the whole Giza plateau will be closed and security stepped up from the evening of December 30, 1999 through the last day of the millennium until the morning of January 1, 2000. 50000 are expected to attend the all-night concert starring French multimedia artist Jean-Michel Jarre, half a kilometre away in the desert beneath the plateau. The party-goers will watch giant images projected on to the sides of the three Giza pyramids and a light-emitting golden pyramid will be lowered by helicopter to replace missing capstone of the largest, Cheops.