Getting Oriented: Figuring out where you are and where you are going in Egypt can be a bit confusing because cities often have ancient Egyptian, ancient Greek and Arabic names, and there are wide variations in the accepted spellings. Moreover, many important historical figures come from countries that no longer exist. For example, for almost 100 years, Egypt was led by Nubian pharaohs from the kingdom of Kush, which is now largely the Sudan. (In addition to pharaohs from Egypt and modern-day Libya, Egypt has been ruled by Persians, Macedonians, Romans, Byzantine, Arabs, Ottomans, and the British.) Finally, most of us are used to thinking about upper as north, and lower as south, but because the Nile flows from the south up to the Mediterranean, in Egypt it is the reverse: e.g., “lower” means north.

The Mena House Oberoi Hotel is in Giza, which is on the southwest outskirts of Cairo, about 25 miles or so from the Cairo International Airport. Cairo sits at the apex of the Nile delta, about 160 miles south of the Mediterranean, located where an island made crossing the river relatively easy. Cairo has a population of about 17 million people and is the capital of Egypt. Its museums, mosques, Coptic treasures, and bazaars are amazing, and the city is the focus of our travel after the cruise. For the first part of the journey, we stay outside the city to see the sights inspired by the great city of Memphis.

Memphis: Memphis was the original capital of the country when Lower and Upper Egypt were united by the first pharaoh, Menes, around 3100 BC. Memphis was the administrative city, and the buildings were not built for the ages—they were mostly made of mud brick and wood. Consequently, few dramatic sights remain. The importance of Memphis is the pharaohs’ temples and crypts, which over thousands of years grew into a giant necropolis that stretches for over 20 miles to the north and west and a bit more to the south. The main attractions in Memphis are the limestone Colossus of Ramesses II, which is over 30 feet tall despite the fact that it no longer has feet, and the Alabaster Sphinx, which is stunning crystalline limestone bleached white from centuries resting in water.

Saqqarah: Located only a little more than a mile from Memphis, Saqqarah is the site of the first pyramid, the Step Pyramid of Zoser. This masterwork was designed and built by the great architectural and medical genius, Imhotep, himself deified in the 6th century BC. It was one of the earliest of all the pyramids and the first great monument in the world to be built of hewn stone. Many of its aesthetic elements, such as using wood or reeds as motifs to soften the visual appearance of stone, were adopted by future builders. The Step Pyramid is not shaped like the familiar four triangles rising to a point, but more like a six layer cake, with each square layer smaller than the next. It forms a lumpy version of the familiar outline of a pyramid.

In the complex around the Step Pyramid, there are several impressive groups of tombs called mastabas containing wonderfully preserved texts and paintings from the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties (about 2500 to 2300 BC.) The largest is the Mastaba of Mereruka, a vizier, which has paintings showing everyday life, such furniture making, hunting and goldsmith working; dancers and musicians; and his family playing music and board games. (Mastabas are often stunningly beautiful because they are intensely decorated with wall paintings, which could not be readily hauled away by early archeologists and other looters. Egyptian law specifies that if you dig it up, you keep half.)

Giza: The most striking thing about Giza is the size of the Great Pyramid, as the Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) is called. Originally about 480 feet high, constructed from over two million stone blocks, each weighing several tons, it is the last of the Seven Wonders. All but the top 30 feet remain. The nearby Pyramid of Khafre is only slightly smaller, although because it rests on higher ground, looks even bigger than the Great Pyramid from most vantage points. Each pyramid complex has a pyramid temple, a causeway, and a valley temple. The Sphinx is at the end of the causeway from the Pyramid of Khafre, and was probably built by him. The Sphinx was carved from an outcrop left after quarrying, and the stone is not very good (which is, after all, why they left it there), so the Sphinx suffers more than most monuments from exposure to sand, pollution and a rising water table. (The term “sphinx” refers to any human-head/animal-body sculpture, but when people just say “The Sphinx,” they mean this one.) Surrounding the complex are the tombs of the pharaohs’ high ranking officials and friends, but the coolest thing is the Boat Museum. A royal boat, 140 feet long and stunningly beautiful, was excavated from a pit in 1954 and reconstructed. It was built from cedar imported from the famed lost forests of Lebanon, and it is remarkable to have survived for so long.

The Light and Sound Show is either great or tacky, depending on your point of view. (The Sphinx talks to you!) It is worth going, just for the fun of it, even though it will be the end of a long day. We love camp. For the benefit of those better at foreign accents than foreign languages, we will attend the English-language version.