Teen used GoPro to capture his illegal climb to the top of Great Pyramid of Giza

GoPros are marketed towards those who seek adrenaline, day in, day out. For better or worse, adrenaline often coincides with illegal activities. This was made very evident in the latest GoPro adventures of 18-year-old Andrej Ciesielski, a German-born teen who recently made an illegal climb to the top of the Great Pyramid of Giza and captured it all on his head-mounted GoPro.

According to Ciesielski, the risk of three years imprisonment (not to mention the possibility of slipping) would be worth it because of the images he’d capture, in speaking with the Telegraph.

It took only eight minutes for Ciesielski to make it to the top, where he spends a fair bit of time taking in the surrounding scenery. His descent took about twenty minutes, as he was trying to be a bit more careful on the way down.

However, as careful as he was, there were local police happy to assist him into custody when he made it to the bottom. Ciesielski says the officers first wanted to take him to the German embassy, but declined to press charges under the condition that he delete all photographic evidence from his GoPro.

Considering he’s no longer in custody, it appears he did just that. How do we have the video then? Why, Ciesielski used data recovery software to bring back the images, even after they were deleted.

As a final statement of sorts, Ciesielski said:

‘Some people were really angry but I don’t care […] I didn’t destroy anything. I didn’t hurt anyone.’

At some level, he might be right, as he alone didn’t destroy much of anything. However, if dozens more were to do that with the same mentality, it could lead to massive damage to one of the most treasured landmarks in the world through erosion—and that’s if they’re being responsible.

While his means of keeping the footage was clever, it is far from our desire to promote this sort of activity. Take this as a warning of sorts and as a life lesson of things not to do. He might’ve gotten away with it, but many haven’t before and future offenders likely won’t either.

[via Telegraph]