Egypt invites Musk after ‘aliens built pyramids’ tweet

Egypt has invited Elon Musk to visit its famed pyramids after the SpaceX and Tesla founder posted a satirical tweet stating that clearly extra-terrestrials had built the giant monuments.

“Aliens built the pyramids obv,” Musk had tweeted, picking up on a theme popular with conspiracy theorists and kicking off a predictable flood of replies ranging from light-hearted to furious.

Among the avalanche of one-liners, memes and potshots were some angry messages from nationalistic Egyptians who demanded the eccentric engineer and high-tech billionaire better check his facts.

Egyptian International Cooperation Minister Rania al-Mashat, a savvy social media user, however, saw a marketing opportunity to help revive the country’s pandemic-battered tourism sector.

“I follow your work with a lot of admiration,” wrote Mashat, a former tourism minister. “I invite you & Space X to explore the writings about how the pyramids were built and also to check out the tombs of the pyramid builders.