Sawiris Bets Another $10 Million on the Giza Pyramids
EGYPT · TOURISM
Key Facts
—Fresh money. Naguib Sawiris is putting another $10 million — 500 million Egyptian pounds — into his overhaul of the Giza plateau, lifting the total by about a third.
—The total. Orascom Pyramids Entertainment’s investment rises to about $40.6 million by 2027.
—What it buys. A fleet of 30 electric hop-on, hop-off tourist buses and a lightweight steel open-air pavilion seating 15,000 for concerts and events.
—The target. Five million visitors a year, roughly double the plateau’s traffic before the overhaul began.
—The model. The state keeps ticket revenue; Sawiris’s company builds its business on events, tours and sponsorships.
The Giza pyramids are getting another $10 million of billionaire attention: Naguib Sawiris’s Orascom Pyramids Entertainment is lifting its investment in the plateau to about $40.6 million, adding 30 electric tourist buses and a 15,000-seat events pavilion beside the ancient wonders.
What is changing at the Giza pyramids
The new 500-million-pound tranche, reported by Bloomberg this week, buys two visible upgrades. Thirty electric hop-on, hop-off buses will move visitors around the sprawling site, and a lightweight steel pavilion will seat 15,000 for open-air concerts and ceremonies.
The spending lifts Orascom Pyramids Entertainment’s total commitment to about $40.6 million by 2027, roughly a third more than previously planned. The company has run visitor services on the plateau since striking an agreement with Egypt’s antiquities authorities.
The pavilion is engineered to sit beside the archaeology without touching it — lightweight steel, reversible by design. The electric buses replace a chaotic mix of coaches, taxis and animal rides.
Together they push the plateau toward what tourism planners call dwell time. Visitors who stay for an evening concert spend far more than those who leave by noon.
A billionaire’s long game
Sawiris has described the project as a long-term bet rather than a quick commercial return, and the structure backs him up. The state collects the ticket money, while his company earns from events, guided tours and sponsorships it develops around the site.
The Egyptian billionaire built his fortune in telecoms before spreading into gold mining, media and hospitality. The pyramids project is as much legacy as ledger — the country’s most famous asset, run to modern standards.
Sawiris has long argued the plateau should be run like the global attraction it is. Few sites on earth carry the same recognition, and few monetised it so poorly for so long.
The first phase focused on basics: ticketing, entry gates and crowd flow around the monuments. The new tranche shifts from fixing problems to adding attractions.
The family remains the barometer of Egyptian private capital. His brother Nassef, Egypt’s richest man, is meanwhile moving to take his chemicals group private, as The Rio Times has reported.
Why now: Egypt’s tourism boom
The timing follows the money pouring into Egyptian tourism. Visitor numbers hit records this year after the Grand Egyptian Museum opened beside the plateau, and the government is chasing far bigger arrival numbers by 2030.
The museum, two decades in the making, finally gave the plateau a modern anchor. Hotel and airport capacity around Cairo is being expanded to match the ambition.
Officials speak of tens of millions of annual visitors in the long run, multiples of today’s records. Whether that arrives on schedule or not, the direction of investment is set.
Orascom Pyramids is targeting five million visitors a year, roughly double what the plateau drew before the overhaul began. Every one of them now arrives at a site with new access controls, trained guides and cleaner transport.
The bigger pattern
Egypt is quietly handing pieces of its tourism infrastructure to private capital, from hotels at the Ras El-Hekma megaproject to the plateau itself. The bet is that professional operators grow the pie faster than ministries can.
Ras El-Hekma, the Emirati-backed city rising on the Mediterranean coast, is the template’s largest expression. The pyramids concession is its most symbolic.
Details of the latest tranche were set out in Billionaires.Africa’s report on the investment. The camel-and-hassle Giza of travel-forum legend is being engineered away, one electric bus at a time.
Why it matters
Tourism is one of Egypt’s largest earners of foreign currency, and the sector’s recovery is central to the country’s economic repair. Flagship-site upgrades compound: better visits mean longer stays, return trips and better word of mouth.
The sector also employs millions of Egyptians directly and indirectly. Its dollars arrive without the debt attached to most other inflows.
For Latin American readers the experiment is familiar. From Machu Picchu to Christ the Redeemer, the same debate — how much commerce a wonder can carry — is live everywhere.
For the global traveller, the practical news is simple. The world’s oldest tourist attraction is finally getting modern logistics, and a concert venue with the Great Pyramid as its backdrop.
More: Egypt news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much is Naguib Sawiris investing in the Giza pyramids?
His Orascom Pyramids Entertainment is adding $10 million (500 million Egyptian pounds), taking its total investment in the Giza plateau to about $40.6 million by 2027.
What will the new investment pay for?
A fleet of 30 electric hop-on, hop-off tourist buses and a lightweight steel open-air pavilion seating 15,000 people for concerts and events.
How many visitors does the Giza plateau expect?
Orascom Pyramids is targeting five million visitors a year, roughly double the traffic before the overhaul. Egypt’s wider tourism numbers hit records in 2026.
Does Sawiris earn the ticket money at the pyramids?
No. The state keeps ticket revenue, while his company builds its business from events, tours and sponsorships around the site.
Connected Coverage
Egypt’s tourism engine is roaring: arrivals set records as the Grand Egyptian Museum delivered, builders like Hassan Allam are pivoting into billion-dollar digital infrastructure, and Cairo’s industrial strategy targets $100 billion in exports.
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