Travel

Pakistani mountaineer races rivals, hunts funds to chase summit record

By Deva LEE Pictures by Amna Yaseen, Video by Faisal Satti LAHORE, Pakistan, July 10, 2023 (AFP) – Pakistani mountaineer Shehroze Kashif faces sub-zero temperatures and biting winds in his race to scale the world’s highest peaks, but his biggest challenge is finding the money. Kashif, 21, aims this year to become the youngest person to climb every peak above 8,000 metres (26,247 feet), all of which are in Asia, with five in Pakistan. Summiting […]

UNESCO condemns bombing of ‘historic building’ in Lviv

PARIS, July 6, 2023 (AFP) – UNESCO on Thursday condemned the bombing of a historic building in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv and expressed “its sincere condolences” to the families of five victims. “This attack, the first to take place in an area protected by the World Heritage Convention since the outbreak of the war on 24 February 2022, is a violation of this Convention,” the UN cultural agency said. UNESCO added that the […]

Mystery of the desert: The lost cities of the Nigerien Sahara

By Camille LAFFONT A long trek across the desert of northeastern Niger brings the visitor to one of the most astonishing and rewarding sights in the Sahel: fortified villages of salt and clay perched on rocks with the Saharan sands laying siege below. Generations of travellers have stood before the “ksars” of Djado, wondering at their crenelated walls, watchtowers, secretive passages and wells, all of them testifying to a skilled but unknown hand. Who chose […]

Building fever grips Greece as tourism booms

by Hélène COLLIOPOULOU Agence France-Presse PAROS, Greece (AFP) — It’s early morning in the picturesque village of Naoussa on the Greek island of Paros, and jackhammers are already echoing as locals ready for what they hope will be a record tourist season. After two bad years because of the pandemic, tourist numbers bounced back spectacularly last year, and this summer the Aegean island hopes to do even better. Construction sites are abuzz all over the […]

Smiley, dimpled sphinx statue unearthed in Egypt

Cairo, Egypt (AFP) — Archaeologists in Egypt have unearthed a sphinx statue “with a smiley face and two dimples” near the Hathor Temple, one of the country’s best preserved ancient sites, the tourism and antiquities ministry announced Monday. It is the latest in a series of discoveries revealed over the past few months. The limestone artefact, believed to be a stylised representation of an ancient Roman emperor, was found inside a two-level tomb near the […]

Egypt unveils hidden corridor in Giza pyramid

Cairo, Egypt (AFP) — Scientists have discovered a hidden passage inside Egypt’s Great Pyramid, the authorities announced on Thursday, part of a seven-year international research project. The passage is nine metres (30 feet) in length and more than two metres in width, the antiquities ministry said in a statement. Egypt’s Tourism and Antiquities Minister Ahmed Issa told reporters at the ancient site in Giza also known as the Khufu, or Cheops, pyramid, that the “gabled […]

Wizz Air suspend flights to Moldova amid security concerns

CHISINAU, Moldova (AFP) — Hungarian budget airline Wizz Air announced Monday it would suspend all its flights to and from Moldova due to security concerns linked to growing tensions with Russia. “Due to recent developments and the high, though not imminent, risk in the country’s airspace, Wizz Air has taken the difficult but responsible decision to suspend all its flights to Chisinau as of March 14,” the group said in a statement. Moldova, a pro-European […]

Hidden Colombia canyon transformed from rebel route to tourist draw

LA URIBE, Colombia (AFP) — For years, the crystal clear river flowing between giant boulders served as a strategic guerilla route in Colombia’s bloody armed conflict. But today tourists bob happily down it in multi-colored inflatables, accompanied by birdsong and the rush of water. The Guape Canyon, a 35-meter (115-foot) deep natural wonder in the town of La Uribe in the southern Meta department, was hidden for decades by the fighting between Bogota and the […]

Machu Picchu reopens 25 days after Peru protests forced closure

Peru (AFP) — The Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, Peru’s tourist jewel, reopened to visitors on Wednesday, 25 days after it closed due to demonstrations that have shaken the country since last December. The first groups of tourists could be seen entering the archaeological park early in the morning, taking advantage of an unusually sunny day as they toured the different sites and sacred temples that make up the “llaqta” (“citadel” in Quechua). Some 700 […]

Iran woos Chinese, other tourists as Westerners stay away

by Ahmad Parhizi and Jerome Rivet Agence France-Presse Tehran, Iran (AFP) — Western tourists, who flocked to Iran just a few years ago, are being advised by their governments to stay away, forcing the Islamic republic’s struggling tourism industry to look elsewhere. Hoping for better days, tourism professionals are wooing visitors from countries like China and Russia which maintain good ties with Iran. Westerners have long been attracted to Iran’s many ancient and Islamic sites, […]

Boeing celebrates 747 at final commercial delivery of ‘jumbo jet’

by Jason REDMOND with Juliette MICHEL in New York Agence France-Presse EVERETT, United States (AFP) — Boeing marked its final commercial delivery of the 747, “the Queen of the Skies” on Tuesday at a ceremony commemorating an aircraft that democratized flying and serves US presidents. Thousands of current and former employees, celebrities and aviation industry brass converged on Boeing’s plant in Everett, Washington, in the Northwestern part of the United States, a factory built for […]

Tourists surge back to Jordan’s desert marvel Petra

by Mussa Hattar Agence France Presse Petra, Jordan (AFP) — Tending to his camels in Petra, Jordan’s spectacular archaeological marvel hidden deep in a desert canyon, Hussein Bdoul is all smiles: the tourists are back. After years in which the Covid pandemic turned the storied “Rose City” into a ghost town, the father of seven is back at work, offering visitors rides on his decorated animals. “Tourism has returned and the numbers are even greater,” […]