For anyone considering travel to Egypt, if you book a trip, make it cancellable and follow Tripadvisor and Lonely Planets forum for up to date info. You can find out from people actually there or that have just been, what the conditions are really like. I went in the Spring of 2012, after the soccer riots, and before the presidential election. We almost didn't go after the riots but reading the forums people talked of how it was safe in all tourist areas. I felt perfectly safe at all times. The only danger was shopkeepers practically fighting over us because we were truly the only tourist there in places. I'm sure it's even more desolate now. For example the Egyptian Museum might have had 20 people in the whole place when we were there. It was so great to get to look at all the King Tut stuff without being pushed all over the place. Same for the Giza pyramids, drive up, guide gets the ticket and we're in within 2 minutes, compared to long long waits in normal times. Bent Pyramid and Step pyramid we had completely to ourselves.
There is danger there. The security is bs. In many places the metal detectors didn't work, or were ignored. I had a backpack full of lenses as we entered Luxor so of course it beeped. They never even looked in the bag. Keep in mind this is Luxor where the big terrorist attack happened back in the 90s. The locals, selling their trinkets, didn't even have to go through the screening. Our guides told us of people buying Toyota Land Cruisers for pennies on the dollar from Libya after the revolution. That wasn't all that was for sale. RPG's and weapons of all sorts made it across the border according to the guides. At some point they will be used for very bad purposes. Maybe after that Egypt will get more serious about their security at the tourist sites.
