In the footsteps of Pharaohs

A felucca sailed in front of an orange sun, which was sinking behind a ridge on the far side of the Nile. Turning away from the river, I darted through a stream of cars and horse-drawn calashes, then stepped onto the broad plaza of the Temple of Luxor. The sky was fast going to cobalt as spotlights illuminated a double row of sphinxes, an obelisk and the great entrance gate flanked by monumental statues of Ramses II. A recording of the call to prayer blared from loudspeakers on a nearby minaret, drowning out all other sounds.

On every vacation there’s a time when sights and sounds intersect to create a memory that becomes one of the standout moments of your life. That balmy evening in Luxor was the essence of my recent “trip of a lifetime” to Egypt.

I wasn’t enthusiastic, though, when my husband, Ralph, first suggested Egypt. I dreamed of seeing the pyramids, but the thought of planning a trip was daunting. But when Country Walkers, a Vermont-based tour group, announced its first-ever walking tour of Egypt, and Ralph noticed the March date would coincide with our wedding anniversary, it seemed preordained that we should sign on.

Friends and family were not as certain. “Egypt?” they said, after a pause. “Are you sure it’s safe?”

It was after dark when we landed in Cairo, so I didn’t see the pyramids until the next morning. I woke, raced to the balcony of our room at the Mena House Oberoi hotel and gazed out at an immense triangle, and another smaller one to the right. In the haze, they looked two-dimensional and, frankly, disappointing. It wasn’t until I got a closer look that the massive, blocky structures became real to me. Lovely they are not. But as symbols of mankind’s ability to conceive and execute a grandiose plan, the Pyramids of Giza are unmatched.

Most time-strapped visitors take a bus to the pyramids, but we were on a walking tour. Our group of 14, along with our guide, Egyptologist Inas Hassan, set out from the hotel, continuing uphill past the Great Pyramid of Khufu and the Pyramid of Khafre to a panoramic viewpoint. A long downhill stroll past the Pyramid of Menkaure brought us face-to-face with the inscrutable Sphinx. My lifelong dream of seeing the pyramids was fulfilled in a morning’s walk.

We walked an easy two or three miles that day and averaged five to six a day. Because of the flat terrain along the Nile, the walks were not strenuous, and any reasonably fit person should be able to do them.

That afternoon, we took a motor coach to the site of the Giza Pyramids’ precursor, the Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, completed in the 27th century BC. In the distance, we saw the Bent Pyramid, so called because the angle of slope changes halfway up, and the Red Pyramid. Amazingly, discoveries are still being made. In November, it was announced that a 4,300-year-old pyramid base had been unearthed at Saqqara, bringing to 118 the number of Egypt’s pyramids.

The rest of our walks in Cairo were urban hikes. We trekked through the Citadel of Saladin and the Mosque of Muhammad Ali; through the Egyptian Museum and the bustling alleyways of the Khan el Khalili bazaar, where a bomb exploded in February, killing a French tourist.

We saw security police throughout the city and, like other groups, we were accompanied by a guard wherever we walked. The unsmiling guards dressed in suits and made little effort to conceal the automatic weapons under their jackets.

In my younger days, I wouldn’t have considered traveling with a group. But now, I’m happy to let someone else figure out schedules, book hotels and arrange transportation. Country Walkers keeps its groups small, and I agree with its premise: Walking is a great way to see a country and get to know its people. Our fellow group members were veteran travelers. At mealtimes, we’d talk about the day’s sights, then segue into our experiences in India, Bhutan, Corsica and Peru.

In visiting several Cairo restaurants, we found that Egyptian food isn’t too different from other Middle Eastern cuisines. Lunches and dinners usually began with bread and starters, or mezes, made up of shared dishes of hummus, baba ghanouj, tahini or tamiya, the Egyptian version of falafel. A bowl of tomato or lentil soup followed, then rice and perhaps lamb, fish, chicken kebabs or a vegetable tagine. Dessert might be rice pudding or Om Ali, a light bread pudding laced with nuts, raisins and coconut. The most typically Egyptian dish we had was koshari, a mixture of rice, pasta, lentils, fava beans and garbanzos, topped with tomato sauce and fried onions.

It was a relief to leave busy, noisy Cairo. We flew to Aswan, and, after touring the High Dam, we boarded a luxury yacht -- a dahabeah (da-ha-BEE-ya).”

The Afandina (meaning king or protector) was our home on the river for three days. A modern, steel-hulled vessel that harks back to the 19th century, it’s a double-masted sailboat -- in theory, anyway. Because we had a tight schedule, we couldn’t rely on the wind, and the crew unfurled the sail only once. The rest of the time we were nudged along by a companion tugboat. The eight small staterooms have picture windows and private bathrooms. There’s also a wood-paneled dining room and a lounge/library with a computer and flat-screen television. The dahabeah provided unforgettable moments: eating lunch on the deck, having afternoon tea on the banks of the Nile or just sitting in the warm breeze at sunset, watching the palm-lined shore slide by.

The craft’s small size allowed it to dock in places inaccessible to cruise ships. The first afternoon, we walked to Beida, a predominantly Nubian village with domed houses painted bright gold, burgundy or lavender. Decorated doorways led to sandy courtyards.

A local guide dressed in a crisp white galabia talked several families into letting us enter their homes, and I felt privileged to meet the gracious women and curious children.

Another morning, we walked to the village of Faris during rush hour. Boys on donkeys and men in carts or white pickup trucks waved as they passed. At the edge of town, two men sat outside fashioning crate-like baskets from palm fronds.

Our local guide went to the multistory school up the road and asked whether we could visit. We tromped upstairs in the new, clean building to visit a class of 15-year-olds. Six girls and 18 boys sat at two-student desks, looking attentive and obedient -- much more so than any sophomore class I ever taught. One boy recited a lesson for us in flawless English.

Many of our walks were to and around temples that line the Nile. Dating from the Ptolemaic Period (323-30 BC), they have similar elements: a high entrance gate or pylon, an interior courtyard, a hypostyle (many columns) hall and a small, dark “holy of holies” sanctuary that in ancient times could be entered only by the high priest. Covering every surface are depictions of kings, gods, goddesses and explanatory hieroglyphics.

At Edfu, we left the dahabeah and, after seeing the Temple of Edfu, boarded a motor coach to Luxor (ancient Thebes), where we checked into the Sofitel Winter Palace hotel. The hotel’s location on the Corniche el Nile made for pleasant walks along the river. It was also near a dock for small outboard boats that ferried us to sites on the west bank. Again, an armed guard accompanied the group whenever we walked.

Most hikes were flat and easy, but we got a cardio workout one day during a sunrise jaunt on the west bank to the 1,378-foot summit of Al-Qurn, then down into the Valley of the Kings. Here rulers from the New Kingdom era were interred in rock-cut tombs rather than pyramids. The tombs were a happy surprise. I knew their treasures were long gone, and I was expecting dark, cramped grottoes. Not so.

They are airy, even cheerful, with high ceilings and good lighting. Corridors and side rooms bear colors -- blues, reds and buttery yellows -- still fresh after more than three millenniums. People, gods, animals and hieroglyphics dance along the walls. Several tombs house sarcophagi in their innermost chambers, although most mummies have been relocated to museums.

We weren’t alone at these sites. There were thousands of visitors from Europe, America and Asia -- even at the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, where, in 1997, terrorists fatally shot 62 tourists and Egyptians. Now, at all archaeological sites and museums, visitors pass through metal detectors, and police are omnipresent.

Next morning, we ferried again to the west bank, but for once our feet got a rest. Our eyeballs got a workout instead. We clambered into a hot air balloon basket, which rose in concert with the sun.

Leaning over the edge, we ogled the Mortuary Temple of Ramses II and the ruins of a village where stonemasons and painters lived while creating the tombs of the pharaohs. Capt. Hatem took us to a soaring 1,600 feet, then swooped to skim a lush-green field. I’d never heard the sound of a basketful of giggling people swishing through tall sugar cane.

On our last day in Luxor, we visited Karnak, a sprawling temple complex noted for its hypostyle hall of 134 columns. Just inside the main pylon is a vestigial mud-brick ramp that demonstrates how these high structures were erected and then decorated. The ramp was built up and used for placing the stones. Then, starting from the top, and working from papyrus plans, stone carvers and painters executed the figures on the facade. The layers of mud-brick ramp were gradually removed as the craftsmen worked their way to the base.

Before the trip when friends asked, “Are you sure it’s safe?” I had no answer. No place on Earth is completely safe, but the Egyptian government has made a huge effort to ensure the safety of foreigners because tourism is crucial to the economy.

The only danger I felt was crossing a busy Cairo street on foot; stopping for pedestrians is an unknown concept. Nor did I experience any overt hostility. Even aggressive souvenir vendors backed off when I said, “Laa’ shukran” (No thanks).

Egypt’s children greeted us with smiles and “Hello!” both in cities and along the Nile. In Cairo’s Egyptian Museum, as I was peering into a case containing King Tut’s golden throne, two boys shook my hand and said, “Welcome to Egypt!”

Now that I’ve seen the pyramids, temples and art of this ancient culture, I’ve become an Egyptomaniac. And although I described my journey as the trip of a lifetime, that’s not really true. Given the chance, I’d return in a heartbeat.

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travel@latimes.com

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If you go

THE BEST WAY TO CAIRO

From LAX, Delta offers direct service (stop, no change of planes) to Cairo, and Air France, British, El Al, KLM, Lufthansa, American, United, Virgin Atlantic and Air New Zealand offer connecting service (change of planes to Egypt Air). Restricted round-trip fares begin at $787.

TOURS

Country Walkers, P.O. Box 180, Waterbury, VT 05676-0180; (800) 464-9255, www.countrywalkers .com; Cost for 10-day Country Walkers tour: $6,968 per person, which includes all food and lodging, tours, ground transportation, airport transfers and flights in Egypt. Price does not include airfare to Egypt.

TO LEARN MORE

Tourist information can be found at www.egypt.travel