et Feature

Extreme Sports
in the Land of
the Pharaohs
68 AUGUST 2019
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Offering a tourism experience exceeding every adventurer’s wildest dreams,
Skydive Egypt has the ambitious, exciting goal of making the Pyramids, and Egypt
at large, an accessible skydiving destination.
By Yasmin El-Beih

I
n mid-2018, announcements of a skydiving event over the
Pyramids had adventurers on the edge of their seats. As
extreme sports, particularly skydiving, are virtually non-
existent in Egypt, conducting such an event over and in
the vicinity of the most recognizable wonder of the ancient world
seemed distant, almost surreal, particularly given a misperception
that going against the grain in the most populous Arab country
comes with overwhelming obstacles. “We really went through a
lot to make the first event happen,” says Skydive Egypt founder
Mahmoud Sharaf. “We had to rent the planes from the military,
which is a lot more expensive than civilian planes, we had to re-
ceive approvals from several government entities, including the
Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Ministry of Antiquities and
the Ministry of Tourism. There are also separate approvals that
we always need to get from the army of course, but for sure, par-
ticularly for the foreigners attending to jump, doing so over the
pyramids is something many could only dream of. The Pyramids
are definitely a major selling point; skydiving is of course an ex-
tremely fantastic sport for anyone to take up, but to do so over a
global wonder, that’s something few people have ever done. In the
case of the Pyramids, no one had done so before; the June 2018
Jump Like a Pharaoh event was the first of its kind,” Sharaf tells
Egypt Today. The event was so successful, that Jump Like a Pha-

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raoh Vol.2 was held merely months therafter, in February 2019.

The only events that come anywhere near being up to par
with such an experience, in his view, is skydiving over the Grand
Canyon or Mountain Everest, both iconic spots, reserved for the
truly adventuresome, and can set skydivers back hundreds, or
even thousands of dollars, per jump.
As tourist inflows to Egypt once again pick up this year and
with the third SkyDive Egypt event slated for 2020, the com-
pany’s exciting plans are both pertinent and promising, explains
Sharaf. The ingenious travel entrepreneur, who juggles the
groundbreaking business alongside his daytime job as an engi-
neer, says the company actually started in 2015 with the purpose
of developing Egypt’s skydiving community and building local
interest in the team sport. Initially, they would go skydiving
in nearby countries such as Morocco and Kenya, given their
proximity and pleasant year-round weather. Since permanently
active skydiving “drop zones,” an area where skydivers can land
after taking off from a nearby base, are nonexistent in Egypt,
locals actually practicing the sport—with few exceptions—resort
to scheduling their skydiving adventures abroad. There are over
100 certified skydivers in Egypt at the moment, many of whom
first took up the sport after connecting with SkyDive Egypt.
Sharaf and co-founder Moustafa Saeed struggled to ad-
equately publicize the first SkyDive Egypt event in June 2018
and generate enough signups to make it successful. Globally,
skydiving hoaxes are common, so it isn’t unheard of that a
skydiver would submit a payment to an international bank
account for a prospective event that, in actuality, turns out to be
a scam. For a skydiving event to successfully gain traction, con-
ventionally, it needs to be reputable, renowned among the global

70 AUGUST 2019

skydiving community, and have a few online supporters—pref-
erably prominent instructors—vouching for it. Despite Sharaf
and Saeed’s efforts, until almost the last minute, registrations
weren’t enough for the team to effectively break even. “At some
point, we had just 45 people registered in the weeks prior to the
June 2018 event whereas we needed at least 60 to break even, pay
the cost of renting the planes and receiving approvals, and so
on. Fortunately, just as we were deliberating how we could make
things work despite the prospective losses, a group of almost 15
skydivers joined through an instructor contact I had abroad,”
Sharaf recounts.
Held in February 2019, Jump Like a Pharaoh Vol. 2 had a
turnout of more than double the prior event; over 130 partici-
pants signed up for the second multi-jump event. Many partici-
pants from the first event attended the second as well, striving
for one more epic jump. While the resources Sharaf and Saeed
have on hand only allow for certified skydivers to jump, many
less experienced skydivers even separately signed up through ac-
companying instructors to do a “tandem” jump, where they are
attached to an instructor guiding the student through the entire
jump. Since there are no active drop zones in Egypt (the Giza
Pyramids complex only becomes a skydiving spot for the course
of the two-day infrequent event that Skydive Egypt hosts), there
are few active instructors available to conduct such a jump in
Egypt; conducting a tandem jump as a Jump Like a Pharaoh
participant could cost upwards of a few thousand dollars. The
price tag for attending the Jump Like a Pharaoh event alone is
just over $1,000.
Upwards of 90 percent of participants at both Jump Like a
Pharaoh events were foreigners, which is positive in altering
Egypt’s image internationally as a destination that’s stable, safe,
and with ample attractions available to the visitors it welcomes.
“For the second event, we really had people attending from every
corner of the earth: USA, UK, Netherlands, Mexico, Argentina,
Sri Lanka, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Germany, France, Denmark,
Sweden, Austria, Dominican Republic, and other places even. .
. . We’re also hoping to soon partner with the Ministry of Tour-
ism in our prospective events, especially since [the Minister]
Dr. Rania El-Mashat is super active in supporting touristic
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ventures,” Sharaf says.
In one video he flaunts of the Jump Like a Pharaoh events,
amputee and freestyle skydiving champion Alistair Hodgson—
who has reportedly successfully completed over 7,000 jumps—
jumps off an Egyptian air force plane, leaping down effortlessly,
with the Pyramids in the background. Jump Like a Pharaoh Vol.
2 was also featured on an episode of the MBC reality TV show
Wein Hein, following the adventures and misadventures of
three young Saudi Arabians travelling around the globe. Other
international shows, publications and media outlets have also
featured Skydive Egypt, arguably serving Egypt’s image and the
revival of its tourism industry. Friends and family often attend
the event to watch, creating a separate revenue stream for tourist
attractions in the area.
To further develop skydiving as a sport in Egypt, from al-
lowing more frequent participation by Egyptian nationals to
generating year-round tourism skydiving revenues, Sharaf and
Saeed are planning to establish an active drop zone, essentially
a skydiving center, in Egypt. “The infrastructure regionally [for
skydiving as a sport] is still very minimal . . . in France alone,
there are 70 drop zones, whereas in the Middle East or Africa
you might only have a couple of drop zones in the countries that
do have one. Dubai is a great skydiving destination, but they are
not active May through October given the heat there during the
summer, whereas in Europe the market is almost dead during
the winter months due to the cold, unpredictable weather. This
gives Egypt a lot of opportunity if we do establish a drop zone
here; the weather is great all year round, so in the months when
other skydiving drop zones aren’t active, we would probably be
working,” Sharaf explains.
According to Sharaf, several renowned resort managers have
expressed an interest in establishing the drop zone on their
premises once the relevant approvals are acquired, as it would
lead to both an indirect and direct touristic revenue stream. The
Red Sea’s Marsa Alam and El Gouna are both being considered
as potential spots for the drop zones, but finalizing the relevant
prior processes and approvals is still in the works.
For more information, visit skydivehigh.com
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