Elon Musk gets invited to Egypt after controversial tweet about pyramids

SpaceX and Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, has been invited to Egypt to explore the origins of the Egyptian pyramids when he tweeted that the pyramids were built by aliens.

Days before the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule splashed down from the orbit, Musk was tweeting about extraterrestrial life when he tweeted; “Aliens built the pyramids obv.”

The tweet was liked nearly 540,000 times and retweeted more than 85,000 times as of Sunday afternoon. 

It’s not clear if Musk was serious, but his tweet got him an invitation to Egypt.

“I follow your work with a lot of admiration. 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,” Rania A. Al Mashat, Egypt’s minister of international cooperation, tweeted Saturday. “Mr. Musk, we are waiting for you.”

Musk tweeted follow-up messages after his initial tweet.

“The Great Pyramid was the tallest structure made by humans for 3800 years. Three thousand, eight hundred years,” he tweeted, sharing a Wikipedia link about the Great Pyramid of Giza.

He also shared a BBC article, which he said “provides a sensible summary for how it was done.”

On Sunday, closing out an unprecedented test flight by Musk’s SpaceX company, two NASA astronauts returned to Earth in a dramatic, retro-style splashdown, their capsule parachuting into the Gulf of Mexico.

It was the first splashdown by U.S. astronauts in 45 years, and the first commercially built and operated spacecraft to carry people to and from orbit.

The return clears the way for another SpaceX crew launch as early as next month and possible tourist flights next year.