Cairo: April 15, 2010

All material including photographs are ©2010 Ronald Dunlap / Doglight Studios

I got up early, resigned to try to make up for last night's calamity. I had peach yogurt and Twinkies for breakfast, washed down with chips and a couple of Cokes. I grabbed my recharged camera and equipment bag and headed for the parking lot where Magdy was waiting.

He'd arranged to pick up Mr. Idress at a pre-arranged spot on the River Road at 8:15. We made our rendezvous right on time and got to the Serapeum just before 9 a.m.

The Saqqara Serapeum is the burial place of the Apis Bulls. The bulls, mummified in a sitting position, and in gigantic black sarcophagi measuring up to 10 feet high and 30 feet long, were placed in the Serapeum beginning in the reign of Amenhotep III of Dynasty 18.

The driver and Toyota pick-up were waiting. There was a little confusion in our boarding the truck. The driver wanted to put my camera bag in the bed of the truck, but I refused. I said I'd ride in the back but my bag had to ride in the cab on the seat. But no one would hear of that, so he ended up making two trips, one with me and my equipment and the other with Mr. Idress and Magdy.

It was a bumpy ride out to the site, which was about a mile away, just southwest of the Step Pyramid.

I've worked with Dr. Abdel Hakiem Karrar a few times before and it's always been a pleasure. He's a refined gentleman, with a very even temperament. I've never seen him berate his co-workers or the fellahin who do the manual labor. He greeted me with his usual warmth and set about showing me the three small sites that his team was currently excavating.

The first was an Old Kingdom father/son complex. Most of the Old Kingdom artisans who worked on burial chambers were literate. They understood the meaning of the inscriptions they were decorating the tombs with. So during this period there were far fewer mistakes than there were in the later periods, when most of the workers were copyists trying to get many symbols into a defined space. A lot of the time when something didn't fit they just left it out.

I took a couple of overall shots, then made my way down the long sloping stairs to the bottom of the father's tomb. It seemed a bit weird because the team had had to come in from the top, so the tomb's interior was exposed to the sky. There wasn't a name for the tomb yet — that would come after they had studied the tomb inscriptions for a few months to make sure they were getting it right.

I moved to the son's tomb next. It was still in tomb form, more like a cave. I photographed the tomb's interior, offering tablet, and false door. There was still a lot of color on the inscription. I spent a half hour there and then made my way up and out and went over to the excavation's staging area overlooking the third tomb. There was lots of activity here. Dr. Karrar and his co-workers were getting ready for me to document their latest find.

I was shooting extra-cautiously this morning after what had happened last night. I had double cards in the 1Ds Mark III, making sure I had some record that I couldn't f-up.

I spent the next hour moving around the site, checking off the shots that Dr. Karrar had requested. I was especially enamored of the frieze above the entrance to the third tomb. The proportions of the hieroglyphics were beautiful, with that magical quality that has intrigued scholars for the last couple of centuries. After shooting the site I needed a portrait of the good doctor, but he's like me, reticent. It took a while to persuade him to pose.

From there we headed back to Giza. I'd told Mr Idress of the card mishap and said that we needed to reshoot the Giza site. We got there around 11:30 a.m., just as they were closing down for the weekend. I met Dr. Khajagy on his way out. I informed him that I needed to reshoot the place due to the loss of the CF card. He smiled but was not happy. He walked me back to the site just as the workers had almost finished closing down the tomb. He made them reopen the place again, and they didn't hide their displeasure. As soon as the doorway was clear, I did the sand swim again and began reshooting the place as fast as possible. Forty minutes later I crawled out and shot the outside angles as quickly as I could. I then made my get-away back to the inspector's rest-house where Mr. Idress was waiting.

As I neared the rest-house I saw that the gate in the Wall of the Crow was only a few hundred yards away. I'd always wanted a good photo of this mythic gate, so I figured now was my chance. The wall is one of the oldest monumental structures on the Giza Plateau and is believed to have been the original entrance to the sacred precincts. The gate is one of the largest megalithic passageways in the ancient world.

I by-passed the rest-house and walked to the west of Dr. Lehner's deserted excavation. I stopped near the Coptic Christian cemetery and took a couple of shots of a man as he walked through the massive structure that is the gate. The blocks of this wall are solid stone. I've never seen anything more massive.

I also spoke with the woman who was one of the caretakers at the cemetery and got permission to photograph her. I'd love to have been there in the late afternoon, but you have to catch as catch-can.

The road back to Cairo was hot and dusty, but there is a kind of peace in that. We stopped at a roadside stand where I bought refreshments for us all, then I got into the back seat with more Cokes and Twinkies. I just sat back, enjoying the afternoon's warmth and the congestion of the second-largest city in Africa.

It was late afternoon when we got back to the hotel. Soon it would be "Golden Time." I hurried up to my room and dumped off as much stuff as possible, then got back out to the streets, trying to reshoot as many of the photos that I had lost the night before as I could.

Because of all the construction in the area, a lot of steel shops had sprung up in the surrounding streets. Some had been located in the older British-style buildings, and one with a tile facade was especially intriguing. From this area I made my way to the fabric market, where the merchants were still in a good mood. The market was alive with Cairenes haggling over exotic patterned and brocaded cloth. There was an air of open friendliness that often evaporates when people see my camera, but here they were all good-natured and let me snap away.

Back at the hotel I ordered my usual Spaghetti Bolognese from room service. While I waited for dinner to arrive, I stored away the memory cards, making sure they were placed face-down so I would know at a glance that they were full of picture information. After the memory cards were stored safely away, I went out onto the patio and stared into the city, trying to think what I was going to do tomorrow. It would be Friday, which is the start of the weekend in Egypt. All government offices would be closed, so I would have to make my own arrangements.

Cairo: April 14, 2010

All material including photographs are ©2010 Ronald Dunlap / Doglight Studios

All my logistics were in place, and things were beginning to roll. I felt so good this morning that I decided to splurge on the breakfast buffet again. I found a table near the window and piled my gear into one of the empty chairs. After heaping eggs, beef bacon, sausage, and a couple of danish onto my plate, I sat down to shovel it in. A couple of glasses of orange juice and a cup of Lipton tea helped wash it all down. Then I went back for seconds. I was going to be shooting in the field today, and they don't break for lunch. I needed enough fuel to get me through the day.

As I was signing the check, the manager came over and handed me a couple of complimentary juice boxes. He looked really familiar — I swear he used to run the restaurant at the Nile Hilton. Unfortunately, another customer called to him and I never got a chance to ask him.

I met Magdy, the driver my friend Ahmed Safe had connected me up with, in the parking lot and looked over the little silver Toyota he'd rented for my stay. We discussed the day's itinerary and exchanged mobile phone numbers, then headed for the Antiquities office in Zamalek.

There's never any parking in front of the office, so Magdy dropped me off and began circling the block while I ran up the stairs to find Mr. Idress. His office was empty — he was probably operating on Egyptian time. Back at the entrance, I stood watching all the people come and go until I spied Mr. Idress's smiling face. He said he had to go up to his office for a couple of minutes but would be right back. On Magdy's next circuit, I told him it wouldn't be much longer and if he had the chance, could he go to the Alfa Market and get a few bottles of water for today.

Once we were all assembled at the car, I told Mr. Idress to take the shotgun seat, and I got into the back with my equipment. We headed out the Ring Road towards the Giza Plateau. Traffic seemed a lot worse than it had just a year ago.

Travel Tip: Most, if not all, Egyptian roads and highways have very large speed bumps. You'll being going along at 60 kilometers per hour, then out of nowhere there is a giant bump. Cars come screeching to a stop, then ease over the bump, then continue on until the next encounter comes out of nowhere. Some of the bumps are marked and some aren't, so you really have to keep an eye out.

After 40 minutes of bumper-to-bumper traffic, we left the Ring Road and headed south. I was under the impression we were going straight to Saqqara, but as we neared the Pyramid Road, we turned right, passed the Mena House, and went up to the entrance to the Giza Plateau, the site of the Great Pyramids.

We had to go through security and Mr. Idress had to show his credentials and argue for a few minutes until our car was permitted to pass. We headed to the administration center.

Before he was promoted, this was Dr. Hawass's office. There was a famous rumor that there was a tunnel from his bathroom to a secret ancient library under the Sphinx. I'm here to tell you that I've been in that bathroom more than once, and there is no tunnel. I wish there was, but there's not.

We parked in front, and Mr. Idress got out and went inside. Five minutes later, he came out with another inspector who knew where I was to go. We drove past Khufu's Pyramid, then at the junction turned east past the Sphinx and exited the plateau compound. During the past few years, they have built a 20-foot-high fence that surrounds the plateau to help control access and protect the area from over-eager entrepreneurs.

With the car loaded down with four of us, it scraped as we drove over the speed bumps. It felt like we were going to tear the oil pan off. In this area, the bumps are every couple of hundred yards. So our progress was very carefully slow.

We stopped at a break in the concrete barrier. The new inspector spoke with the police in charge of this entry point. The discussion took a while, during which we were interrupted by groups of camels and riders on horseback attempting to bribe their way onto the plateau. I finally got permission to enter, but Magdy and the car had to stay on the street. We agreed that he'd find a tea shop nearby and wait for us. I was to give him a call when I wanted to be picked up.

Once they got the word that I had permission to visit, the guards were very respectful. We walked a couple of hundred yards up to the Inspector Rest House. This is right next to the Workmen's Village (the place where the workers lived while they built the pyramids) that Dr. Mark Lerner has been excavating for the past few years.

From there, a 15-minute walk through deep sand took us up a hill to the new excavation. It's the tomb site of a worker who was probably a middle manager. He must have died unexpectedly, because the tomb decoration was only in the early stages of completion. When I got out of the car, I made the mistake of asking the inspector what I would be shooting. He told me that it was all out in the open daylight, but once at the site, I found something different. I had to do the sand swim back to the car to get a flash and my tripod.

Entering Tomb from Ronald Dunlap on Vimeo.

Back at the site, I put on my helmet-cam and made my way into the tomb. It was very unfinished, and the ravages of time had also taken a toll. I moved the excavators out of the tomb and took the next hour to get what photographs I could. It was very claustrophobic. Even with a flash it was impossible to get even a semblance of flat light, even after I blocked the window. Wearing the camera helmet while shooting stills was very uncomfortable, and I couldn't tell at what or where the lens was pointing. After an hour of shooting, I wasn't sure what I had, but I'd done what I could. Once outside, Dr. Khajagy told me how he wanted me to frame the exterior shots and what to include. Another 20 minutes and I was shaking hands with everyone and heading back down the hill. I called Magdy, and he was waiting for us as we exited the check point.

Saqqara is another 30 minutes south along the River Road. It is the site of the step-pyramid of Zoser (Djoser), the first large-scale, cut-stone structure on earth. As usual, when we got to the entrance, there was no advance instruction, so we had to show credentials again and argue for the next five minutes before we were allowed to enter. We took a side road past the museum and magazines (where they store artifacts) and headed to the administration center. Mr. Idress got out and went inside to find Dr. Karrar, whose excavation I was supposed to shoot. Dr. Karrar said he'd love for me to shoot his new dig but that we were too late for today. The workers had closed the tombs, and we'd have to come back tomorrow as early as possible. It was agreed that we'd meet his driver in front of the Serapeum, where the Apis Bulls were buried. We'd need a truck to get to the dig site.

We were going to head back to Cairo, but Mr. Idress suggested that we stop at one of the storage magazines and see if they had anything new to document. That was fine with me, so we knocked on the door and made arrangements to shoot a few of the latest finds before they were refurbished and placed on exhibition.

I spent an hour there shooting on the floor with whatever was available. The artifacts were between three and four thousand years old. There were several small religious statues, head rest, an alabaster jar with lid, a broken sandal, lamp, scarab, blue bowl and a scribe's ink palette and stylus. It's amazing how the Egyptian sands hold their secrets so precisely.

After an hour of shooting I could tell our hosts were getting antsy. Most government workers in Egypt tend to try to get out of the office by 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Being a government worker can be prestigious, but the pay is lousy. Even if you hold a Ph.D., you're always in need of a lift and never have any minutes on your phone.

We said our goodbyes to the magazine's staff, got in the Toyota, and headed for Cairo. We would drop off Mr. Idress near downtown, and I asked Magdy if he knew of any computer stores in that area. Naturally, after being in the business for 20 years, he knew where everything was.

He dropped me off in front of an indoor arcade, a warren of small shops selling everything that might have to do with computers, home theaters, or sound-systems. It took me ten minutes of stumbling through the place to find a sales clerk willing to deal with me in English. I showed him a CF memory card and told him I was looking for a reader. He left his shop and went searching through the mall. He returned 15 minutes later with a plastic reader that had a slot for a CF card. I purchased that along with a stack of DVD-Rs for 130 Egyptian pounds ($23.63).

Back at the hotel, I intended to transfer the last three days' shooting from my 16GB card to the desktop and cut a couple of DVDs for Dr. Hawass's team. I plugged in the reader using a USB connection and put in an empty card, and it popped up on the screen. Then I took the Lexar Pro CF card out of the Canon 1Ds Mark III and put it in the reader, then opened it and saw the folder I wanted to copy. The second I dragged the folder onto the desktop, it froze up everything, like the card had been fried. I shut down the MacBook, pulled the card, and put it back in the camera to see if I still had data.

The camera screen said that the card couldn't be read and that it needed to be formatted. I was stunned. I'd just lost three days of shooting. What a major f_ck-up.

It took me most of the night to reconcile myself to continuing the expedition.