The viral footage was captured by American paragliding enthusiast Alex Lang, who was soaring over the 156m pyramid when he spotted Apollo on the summit, barking at some birds.
“He was acting like a king,” said Alex. As you would — Khafre is the second-highest of the great pyramids and is closed to the public, so Giza’s stray dogs have it all to themselves if they are game.
And there is poetry in that, given that several of the pharaohs were buried under the pyramids along with their mummified dogs. You might think it a noble way for a dog to end up, but it occurs to me that the dog had to be suddenly put to death as soon as the pharaoh expired, rather than the other way round — which hardly seems fair.
Anyway, you can find the video easily enough if you search for “dog climbing pyramid”. It’s a wobbly clip, given Alex was circling in the wind up above it, but you can see Apollo strutting across the top of the majestic Khafre, like he owned it.
It reminded me of some other impressive dog feats that I’ve come across: the billy lids will regale me with more examples soon, when one of them scores the Guinness Book of Records for Christmas.
There was Rupee, for instance, the stray dog from Ladakh, in India, where Joanne Lefson found him while in India to check out an Everest expedition. She returned with him six months later and he climbed with her for 10 days to the Everest base camp, at 17,000 feet.
Quite a few dogs have vied for the longest trip home, none better than Bobby the Wonder Dog, who travelled 2551 miles (4105km) from Silverton, Oregon, to Indiana after becoming separated from his family in a road trip, way back in 1923.
The Scotch Collie-English Shepherd mix struggled home to his family six months later, emaciated but alive, having crossed mountains, rivers and deserts to get there. They erected a statue of him in Silverton.
Another dog-with-a-statue is Balto, a Siberian Husky, who helped deliver a critical antitoxin to fight a diptheria outbreak in the remote town of Nome, Alaska, in the winter of 1925.
There was no way of getting to Nome in the harsh weather conditions, except by dog sled, and a relay of dog teams was planned to cart the much-needed serum 1085km from Nenana to Nome. Balto was selected to lead the final, most treacherous leg of the journey through blizzard conditions, arriving in Nome on February 2, 1925.
Balto’s statue now stands in New York’s Central Park.
Then, of course, there are the athletic feats of dogs like Feather, a hound from Maryland, who was recorded jumping a height of almost two metres; and the record for the oldest dog is still held by the original Bluey, the Australian Cattle Dog who reportedly died in 1939, aged 29 years and five months.
The Aussie dogs have always punched above their weight: the record for the longest surf ride is still held by the Kelpie Abbey Girl, who surfed a wave for 107m off Ocean Beach Dog Beach in San Diego back in 2011. Woof!
