I found the prospect of visiting Egypt daunting, but not because I feared terrorism. (Don’t let the February ’09 bomb in downtown Cairo mislead you; Egypt’s Tourist Police have not permitted a single such incident at the country’s archaeological sites since 1997.)

Nor did I fear the famously searing heat. (There’s a simple solution: Go in winter).

No, what scared me, simply, was claustrophobia.

To see some of Egypt’s greatest ancient wonders, such as the breathtakingly vivid wall paintings in the pharoahs’ Valley of the Kings, you first have to get through narrow passageways to crypts cut deep into hillsides. My concern, therefore, was that in order to savor these and other treasures, I’d have to shake my fear before I left the Cairo area.

So gather round, children, for a tale of bold actions and derring do. That, plus one Sphinx, three pyramids, and a critique of the 1932 horror movie, The Mummy.

Cairo, Meet Memphis

Egyptian civilization dates back at least 5,000 years. The largest city in ancient Egypt, Memphis, was just a few miles from modern Cairo, so you can see extraordinary monuments without ever leaving the capital city area.

Such a limited itinerary wasn’t my intention, of course, yet it’s nice to know that if you’re in town for business or an abbreviated vacation, you can still visit some name-brand wonders of the world.

Because Egypt gets only one inch of rain per year, the ancient Egyptians built most of their settlements and monuments -- from the Cairo-Gaza-Memphis area south to Abu Simbel and Luxor (Thebes) and north to Alexandria -- along the Nile River.

Venture out of Cairo and you see fields of dark green garlic shoots. But take one step further, and suddenly, you're walking on pure sand that stretches westward for almost 3,000 miles. READ MORE