Lure of Australia's Uluru hard to resist

Local Aboriginal people consider Uluru sacred but more than 35 people have died attempting to scale the monolith since the late 1950s. - AFP/file

Uluru (Australia) (AFP) - The urge to scramble up Uluru, the great red rock rising out of Australia's desert heart, is difficult to resist for many tourists, despite the risk of upsetting the local Aboriginal people.

A modest link-chain rail guides visitors up the steepest slopes of the formation once known as Ayers Rock, but the traditional Aboriginal owners, whose connections to the site date back tens of thousands of years, do not welcome climbers.