Tourists being assisted by their guides as they climb one of the Pyramids at Giza in the 1890s. Tourism at the Pyramids is thousands of years old, with people from the empires of Macedon, Rome, French, British and many more coming to Egypt to see them. They climbed them, took pieces, and this was before the sites were even excavated. Eventually, in the 1980s Egypt stopped people from climbing them, as such wear and tear was causing significant damage to the outsides of the Pyramids. It can be possible to still do so, perhaps with a pass for a fee, but not freely and easily as it was before the restrictions.