CAIRO
Egyptian security authorities on Tuesday released two Turkish nationals who were briefly held for "taking photos of historic sites in Luxor where photography is not allowed," a security official said.
"Residents told police about the two tourists, who were released after their cameras were checked to make sure they did not take photos in areas where photography is prohibited," Hosni Hussein, head of the tourism police in Upper Egypt, told Anadolu Agency.
Earlier the same day, a security source said the two Turks had been arrested while taking photos in the hills around the historic sites of Deir al-Medina and the Valley of the Queens west of Luxor without a permit from the relevant authorities.
The pair told authorities that they were geologists specialized in stratigraphy around historic sites.
Luxor, considered the world's largest open-air museum, is one of Egypt's top tourist attractions.
Relations between Cairo and Ankara have cooled since the army's July 3 ouster of Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president, in a move described by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a "military coup."
englishnews@aa.com.tr
