REPORTER:  Fouad Hady and Victoria Strobl

 
They are Egypt's greatest treasures, and a magnet for tourists the world over.  These aren't just icons of an ancient empire - the nation's future depends on them as well.  But try telling that to the camel guides at the Pyramids. They tell Fouad that their business is suffering.

REPORTER (Translation):  How many tours a day do you do?

GUIDE (Translation):   It might be one tour in two or three days. When the situation is calm we get a lot of tourists. If they don’t come, there is no business. If there is tourism, money will come.

STALL KEEPER:   I want to share you something you've never seen before.

And in Cairo's famous Khan el-Khalili bazaar, the multilingual tassin has never seen things so bad. Tourists are again few and far between.

STALL KEEPER (Translation):  Before the revolution, we used to get ten buses here every hour. Egyptians couldn’t walk in Khan el-Khalili because it was crowded with tourists.  Now if someone comes here with their family to spend time in a café, they would feel sad to see the market like this.

And the city's back streets - normally crowded with tourists - are all but empty.  On the mighty River Nile, normally another Mecca for visitors, Yasser is getting desperate. His tour boat would normally be full. 

YASSER (Translation):  Yes, before the revolution tourism was excellent. I had two people and there were other people too benefiting my work.  People selling drinks, ice cream, food, anything - tourism was like a circle, everyone was benefiting from it, everyone benefited from tourism. 

Yasser takes Fouad to meet Abu Mohammed. He's also fallen on hard times. His family are forced to live on this boat, as he tries to make a living from fishing. 

ABU MOHAMMED (Translation):   I had a boat, I worked in tourism. After the revolution tourism went down, no income, so I started working on a fishing boat, but the fishing is also poor – same thing.  Even the Nile is all polluted now and most of the fish have died.  We don’t know what to do after that, we can’t find food to eat. Our life has got tough.

Egypt's revolution may have ended a dictatorship... But it's scenes like these that brought the tourism industry to its knees. 

ABDIS SAALAM (Translation):   Sir, the car is at the hotel, ready when you are.

Abdis Saalam from Hebton Tours once moved thousands of tourists in and out of the country.

ABDIS SAALAM (Translation):   I have gotten used to having bookings cancelled. The moment something happens in the street, I can’t keep up with the cancellations of bookings. We’re all bleeding, but we hope that we will take off again.

An estimated 3.5 million Egyptian families depend on tourism - everything from farms to factories, even milk suppliers to the hotel industry. Fouad went to the Egyptian hotels association to speak with Nagui Erian, the vice-chairman, to find out more. He wanted to ask him if the security situation is the only reason for the catastrophic drop in tourist numbers.

NAGUI ERIAN:  This is the main reason for the lack of tourists, and that the tourists didn't come to Egypt. This was the main thing.

REPORTER:  What's the others?

NAGUI ERIAN:  The other, it came after - after the one party took over and - which is the Muslim Brothers - and some of them and some other parties, like the Salafists, started to say some words and some statements that everything is haram and halal which, you know the meaning - this is good and this is bad, this is against the religion. 

Haram and halal are very sensitive words when it comes to Egypt's ancient treasures. Radical Islamists called Salafists believe they should not be viewed at all by Muslims.  In this interview, broadcast on national television, Salafist Sheikh Abdul al-Shahad, said others should only be able to view the Pyramids and other sacred sites through a veil of wax. 

PRESENTER (Translation):   To stay on the topic, you are basically saying “Yes, I called for covering the faces of Pharaonic statues with wax because statues are a sin and it is not right to earn income from tourists coming to look at them or for the state to derive income from it.” That is basically what you are saying.

SHEIKH ABDUL AL-SHAHAD (Translation):   No, it’s not. What I am saying is that since there is income derived from these statues, but there is a religious decree against keeping them as they are, we’ll make wax masks for them. You are saying we won’t earn income from them, I say we can.

PRESENTER (Translation):   But people won’t flock to see wax masks, sir.

SHEIKH ABDUL AL-SHAHAD (Translation):   I specifically chose wax so people could see them.

PRESENTER (Translation):   Do I want to see wax statues or genuine culture?

SHEIKH ABDUL AL-SHAHAD (Translation):   no, if we import good quality wax – it will be clear, transparent wax.

Pouring wax over the Pyramids may sound bizarre, but these are not the views of a fringe minority.  The Salafists and their allies hold 25% of seats in the new democratically elected parliament. Fouad wanted to know more about how they interpret the Koran in relation to tourism. For example, what the Egyptians call "beach tourism" brings in millions of dollars.  At this mosque, Fouad finds Sheikh Fetime.

SHEIKH FETIME (Translation):  It’s permissible for a woman to swim in the water, enjoy it and enjoy the view. It is equally permissible for a man to enjoy the water and the beautiful scenery, but, to us in Islam, mixing is forbidden.  In Islam, there are private parts that God Almighty ordered us to cover.

GIRL:   See you at the party!

At Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt's best-known beach resort, DJ Flower has what it takes to get the party started.  But for the Salafists, this is definitely haram, or forbidden. 

SHEIKH FETIME (Translation):  If a woman goes out naked, garish, gaudy, and she appears before men on the beach, such tourism is without doubt impermissible.  Men sitting at the beach looking at her are committing a sin, no doubt.

Back in the bazaar, Fouad meets Helena and Stephen. They are enjoying their time in Cairo, but are wilting under the heavy sales pitch.

HELENA:   No, it's OK.

SALESMAN:  How much?

HELENA:  I don't want to buy one. I don't understand why if you say "No thank you," they continue asking you.

STEPHEN:  I think you're not buying it for the object, you're buying it because you're feeling terrible about the guy who's working so hard.

Under the Salafists, these public displays of affection would be banned.

HELENA:    Don't blow on me.

With their visit almost over, Fouad asks them about the idea of wearing the hijab, and other restrictions proposed by the Salafists. 

REPORTER:  Are you going to stop coming if Islamic law is brought in?

HELENA:    No, not really. I really don't believe that just because I am not Muslim, I should not go to places that have Muslim law. 

For the Salafists, married couples like Helena and Stephen are halal, or permitted, but unmarried couples are a very different story. 

REPORTER (Translation):  If a couple comes here – boyfriend and girlfriend, what do you think, according to the Sharia?

SHEIKH FETIME (Translation):  Under Sharia, it is not permissible under any circumstances.

ABDIS SAALAM (Translation):   We will stand up against them and say no to them. We are prepared to create a revolution if our livelihood is affected.

With his travel business struggling to survive, Abdis Saalam has no time for the Salafists. He rejects their interpretation of the Koran, and the obsession with covering statues. 

ABDIS SAALAM (Translation):   They have been there for a long time, since the days of the prophet and even before. Neither the prophet nor his companions said we will cover statues with wax.  So the issues of these statements does not worry us as much as security.

For its part, the government rejects the Salafists' statements, and is determined to see the tourists return in large numbers. Moving around the city, it's obvious the government is working hard to restore law and order. The police are back on the streets again.  This was Tahrir Square earlier this year. Now, it looks like this.  But if and when tourism returns to its former glory, it may all be too late for Abu Mohammed and his family. Right now, they're paying a very high price for Egypt's bumpy transition to democracy.

ABU MOHAMMED (Translation):   This one was at school, I had to take him out this year, I could not send him.

REPORTER (Translation):  Why not?

ABU MOHAMMED (Translation):   I could not afford it.  There is nothing coming in. no income.

Narrator
VICTORIA STROBL

Reporter/Camera
FOUAD HADY

Producer 
GEOFF PARISH

Editors
NICK O’BRIEN
MICAH MCGOWN

Translations/Subtitling
DALIA MATAR
JOSEPH ABDO
SUHEIL DAMOUNY

Original Music Composed by 

VICKI HANSEN

Additional footage courtesy of Dj Flower AKA Virag Voksan