Katmandu: Nepal has hiked the cost of an Everest climbing permit by a third, arguing it will help tackle pollution and boost safety on the world’s highest mountain, the tourism chief said Tuesday.
Fees for the peak spring climbing season will rise from $11,000 to $15,000 for a permit to scale the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) peak, Narayan Prasad Regmi, director general of the tourism department, told AFP.
“The cost had remained constant for a decade and it was high time to revise that,” he said.
Costs of climbing at less popular — and more demanding — times of year such as during winter or the monsoon rains have also risen at similar rates, including from $5,500 to $7,500 during the autumn season.
Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 14 peaks over 8,000 meters and welcomes thousands of climbers each year.
Foreign climbers already spend tens of thousands of dollars in their attempt to climb Everest, with more than 400 purchasing permits last year, bringing in around $4 million to government coffers.
The funds are put toward cleaning trash from the mountain left by climbers as well as search and rescue operations.
Mountaineering expedition companies hoped the price hike would not deter climbers, warning some might look to scale Everest through China.
“Some climbers might shift to Tibet where the facilities are much better,” said Mingma G Sherpa, who runs the Imagine Nepal mountaineering company, saying the fee must be spent on improving conditions.
“Our government just increases the royalty, but doesn’t do much,” he said.
“It needs to also provide support to the climbers and guides.”
Nepal has been criticized for allowing too many climbers on Everest while doing little to keep the peak clean.
Last year, the Nepal government ordered Everest mountaineers to carry mandatory trackers and carry bags to remove their excrement.
The fee increase was approved by the government in January, but was only published in the national gazette late Monday.
Nepal hikes Everest climbing fee by a third
https://arab.news/4ja94
Nepal hikes Everest climbing fee by a third
Researchers find 10,000-year-old rock art site in Sinai
- The natural rock shelter’s ceiling features numerous red-pigment drawings of animals and symbols, as well as inscriptions in Arabic and Nabataean
- Some engravings reflect the lifestyles and economic activities of early human communities
CAIRO: Archeologists have discovered a 10,000-year-old site with rock art in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, the country’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said.
The previously unknown site on the Umm Irak Plateau features a 100-meter-long rock formation whose diverse carvings trace the evolution of human artistic expression from prehistoric times to the Islamic era.
The Supreme Council of Antiquities “has uncovered one of the most important new archeological sites, of exceptional historical and artistic value,“the ministry said in a statement.
Its chronological diversity makes it “an open-air natural museum,” according to the council’s secretary-general, Hisham El-Leithy.
The natural rock shelter’s ceiling features numerous red-pigment drawings of animals and symbols, as well as inscriptions in Arabic and Nabataean.
Some engravings “reflect the lifestyles and economic activities of early human communities,” the ministry said.
Inside, animal droppings, stone partitions, and hearth remains confirm that the shelter was used as a refuge for a long time.
These “provide further evidence of the succession of civilizations that have inhabited this important part of Egypt over the millennia,” Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathi said.
He described the discovery as a “significant addition to the map of Egyptian antiquities.”
The site is located in southern Sinai, where Cairo is undertaking a vast megaproject aimed at attracting mass tourism to the mountain town of Saint Catherine, a UNESCO World Heritage site and home to Bedouin who fear for their ancestral land.
