Dozens of colorful parachutes on Monday flew over the Great Pyramids of Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, kicking off the 4th annual international skydiving festival named “Jump Like a Pharaoh” in Egypt.
The seven-day event this year gathers over 200 foreign skydivers from around 30 countries, including world champions, and 135 Egyptian skydivers.
The event, organized by Egyptian sports investment company Skydive Egypt in cooperation with the Egyptian Parachuting and Air Sports Federation, is also held under the auspices of the Egyptian Ministry of Youth and Sports.
Mostafa Saeed, the CEO of Skydive Egypt and head of the festival, said that the annual event has never stopped since it started in 2018, even despite the COVID-19 pandemic since the beginning of 2020, noting that it attracts more participants every year.
“This year, after the spread of vaccines and the reopening of airports, we have 215 participants from 29 countries who insisted to join the festival, which has become one of the main festivals on the international skydiving agenda,” Saeed told Xinhua in an interview near the pyramids.
The colorful landing parachutes caught the eyes of the spectators around the pyramids, who included a number of officials and diplomats from participant countries who came to support their athletes.
“I feel happy to be here today to support the Ecuadorian athlete,” said Rafael Veintimilla, Ecuador’s ambassador to Egypt, stressing that “such a unique event could bring people from different countries closer, especially in this historic place.”
The “Jump Like a Pharaoh” event is also supported by concerned bodies of the Egyptian government, including the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
“The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities always sponsors many sports, cultural and artistic events. This is not the first time to sponsor this event and will not be the last,” said Ahmed Youssef, assistant minister of tourism and antiquities for tourism marketing and promotion.
Supporting such events is part of the ministry’s new marketing strategy to promote tourism in Egypt “in a new, exciting and modern form,” the Egyptian official told Xinhua.
