Nope. There are literally voyage reports by Herodotus, who describes guides to the pyramids, street food vendors, and translators. That was about 2500 years ago, for example.

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thaumasiotes 2 days ago | parent [-]

You might notice that 2500 years ago is a lot less than 5000 years ago. 5000 years ago, there were no guides to the pyramids. There was no tourism. There wasn't really writing, either.

Today tourism makes up a little more than 10% of the economy of Egypt. 2500 years ago, it would have been around 0%, for the simple reason that almost nobody could afford to be a tourist. The big businesses were grain and gold. 5000 years ago, it was actually 0%. That's when the desertification of the Sahara began and the people who had lived there came to Egypt and inserted themselves at the top of society.

	▲	JetSpiegel a day ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Just because they were called pilgrims, they did the same thing as modeen tourists, with the corresponding economic activities: visiting landmarks, sleeping, eating, shopping. Praying wasn't even free, if they had to sacrifice some animal.
	▲	a day ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
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	▲	A_D_E_P_T a day ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> That's when the desertification of the Sahara began and the people who had lived there came to Egypt and inserted themselves at the top of society. It's very interesting to imagine the "green Sahara" cultures, with all of their cities and temples now under tons of sand, that we otherwise have no knowledge of.