12 H&H Series, Thursday March 8, 2012 Travel Jenny Woolf Following in the footsteps of my ancestors Discovering an ancient land that her globetrotting family had talked much about left our traveller enthralled – and vowing to return My family were inveter- ate globetrotters, so I grew up hearing tales of all Eggs »kinds of faraway places – including Egypt. Ah, that tennis club in Alexandria! Benedict, the Those elegant dress shops in Cairo’s Rue Solomon Pasha! Pyramids and The parties and camel-racing beneath the Pyramids, at the grand old Mena House hotel my own at Giza… Of course I know that family history Egypt now is very different from how it was then. Still, I made me was excited to learn that my own first few nights in Cairo would be at this very same aware of what Mena House. I don’t think they race camels any more, so many and suburbs have swallowed the palm-fringed dust-track that once led to its door, but people notice Mena House was still a hotel to remember. about Egypt – The entrance hall is a re- markable fantasy of fretted gold, the public areas are fur- its strange nished with Islamic antiques, and the elaborately panelled juxtaposition restaurant serves what must be the best eggs Benedict in the Middle East. of past and And of course, it is still al- most in the shadow of the present Pyramids. In fact, as I ate my eggs Benedict the first morn- ing, the Great Pyramid was the huge shape just beyond FACTFILE the waving palm trees outside the window. N A two-centre trip including And the idea of eggs Bene- international and internal flights, dict today, pyramids four transfers and B&B for three nights thousand years old and my at Mena House Oberoi in Cairo and own family history made me four nights at the five-star Sofitel aware of what so many other Karnak in Luxor, costs from £847 people also notice about per person. Discover Egypt also Egypt – its strange juxtaposi- offers Nile Cruises and tailor-made tion of past and present, of Egyptian destinations. changelessness in the midst of change. NThe Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Changing Centre at www.wissawassef.com/ Egypt is certainly chang- NDiscover Egypt on 0844 880 ing now, though largely 0461 or www.discoveregypt.co.uk peacefully, it seems. My Jan- uary stay felt safe, and there N Morning view at were no Foreign Office travel Mena House with the restrictions, but I checked sun rising over with the FO website every pyramids of Giza, top; day and made sure to absorb weaver at Wissa the general advice before I Wassef, Harrania, left; drove across the blue spar- a Nile shuttle boat kling Nile into Cairo city, from Sofitel Karnak past the now faded glories of hotel heads into Luxor those dress shops, through town, right the crowds to the Cairo Museum. Citadel, the medieval dens is still an oasis of calm. their tapestries directly on around – gardens where the tiquities. Around here are This huge terracotta-col- mosques – there’s lots to see It accepts visitors, but sees their high, old-fashioned natural dyes are also the Valley of the Kings with oured museum stands in a in Cairo, but I also wanted to no souvenir-seeking hotel looms without preliminary grown. its surprisingly bright and garden full of date-palms and visit somewhere more coach parties, for the centre drawings. They created I was sorry to leave Cairo, large royal tombs, and acres creepy statues of tremendous unusual. At a couple of buys every single piece of amazing things: Biblical sto- because I liked this chaotic, of amazing temple ruins antiquity. It is everything a London exhibitions, I’d seen work that the weavers pro- ries of glory and power, peas- varied, noisy, historical city, with forests of columns, in- vintage museum ought to be, the fascinating Wissa Wassef duce at a good price (paying ant scenes of harvest and but Luxor also had its own numerable statues, ceremo- with long echoing galleries, peasant tapestries of Harra- a premium for creativity) hard work, ducks, birds, appeal. Once the desert cap- nial avenue of sphinxes, and mahogany cases, and dingily nia. Colourful, subtle and and sells internationally. plants and animals, stories ital of Thebes, it is far more inscriptions and carvings painted pillars with ancient unique, they are collected Wissa Wassef, who died in and legends. relaxing than Cairo, with on almost every surface. hand-typed signs. You almost by connoisseurs and muse- 1974, was a visionary, a gen- roads lined with bright flow- By the end of my week, my expect to find Hercule Poirot ums worldwide, and I want- ius perhaps. “He had the gift Sophisticated ers and many hotels. The list of things to see in Egypt twirling his moustaches ed to see where they were of seeing peoples’ potential As they grew to adulthood, sun shines all day and every had become longer. Aswan, amidst the shadowy rows of made. and helping them to achieve their work became ever day, and I was frankly tempt- Abu Simbel, Siwa oasis, and mummies. Tutankhamen’s The late Ramses Wissa it,” explained his son-in-law more sophisticated and ed to lounge by the beautiful the White Desert with its ee- treasures are kept here, but Wassef, architect and profes- Ikram, who now runs the complex. During my visit, bright Nile that flowed past rie rock formations – I did there’s much more: strange sor, made his home and centre. weavers came and went to the gardens of the laid-back need more time. So I re- earrings hung with spindles, workshop in what was then a Passionate about develop- suit their own schedules, Sofitel Karnak where I solved to come back before gold-bladed daggers, elabo- remote village in the early ing natural creativity, Wissa sometimes with their own stayed. too long. I might even look rately beaded shrouds, shoes 1950s. Harrania is less ru- Wassef taught weaving to children in tow. Bright I did manage a sunset boat for somewhere that does shaped like the Pharaoh’s ral than it was, but the cen- any village children who images sat half finished on trip and I took the hotel’s camel-racing, and if my enemies, to be crushed into tre’s rambling complex of wanted to learn. They used the looms, harking back to a shuttle boat into town one ghostly ancestors are look- the dust. traditional-style domed natural wool, dyes created more rural life, or perhaps day, but I’m glad I spent most ing over my shoulder, I’m The Pyramids, too, the buildings and pleasant gar- from plants, and created inspired by the gardens all of the time visiting the an- sure they’d approve of that. .