Egypt's Great Pyramid bathed in national colours of victims

CAIRO - The Great Pyramid in Egypt was bathed Sunday in French, Lebanese and Russian colours in homage to the victims of attacks in Paris and Beirut and the Sinai plane crash.

The Great Pyramid of Khufu, the only one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world still standing, was illuminated by projectors reproducing the flags of France and Russia and the green cedar of Lebanon.

Young Egyptians were staging an overnight candle-lit vigil at the foot of the more than 4,500-year-old giant monument on the Giza plateau on the outskirts of Cairo.

The tourism and antiquities ministries organised the ceremony to "mourn the innocent lives lost around the world", paying tribute "to the victims of the crash of the Russian airplane and attacks in Lebanon and France".

Late Friday, gun and bomb attacks in Paris claimed by the Islamic State group killed 129 people and wounded 350.

On Thursday in Beirut, twin bombings claimed by IS killed 44 people in southern Beirut, a stronghold of the Shiite Hezbollah organisation that backs the embattled Syrian regime. 

The jihadist group has also said it was behind the October 31 crash in the northern Sinai of a Russian Metrojet Airbus A-321, killing all 244 people on board.

London, Washington, Moscow and many experts believe the disaster was caused by a bomb, but Cairo has refused to rule on the cause until the investigation is complete.

In Dubai, meanwhile, the world's tallest building the Burj al-Khalifa was lit up Sunday in the colours of the French national flag.

Elsewhere in the Gulf, Kuwait City's landmark towers were also illuminated in the red, white and blue of France.