City of the Dead, Cairo: history of occurrence and our days

In Egypt, under Mount Mukattam, north of the Citadel, is the Cairo necropolis - the City of the Dead. Cairo - the capital of the state, consisting of many areas, one of which is this extended cemetery. The age of the repository exceeds two millennia, and the territory is constantly increasing. Now its length is more than 6 kilometers.

City of the Dead (Cairo)

Egypt is considered a Muslim country, only 15% of residents profess Christianity, so the City of the Dead is an Islamic necropolis. Hearing this name, many people think that we are talking about the Great Pyramids, located in Giza, near Cairo. But in fact the so-called largest cemetery, located in the capital of Egypt. By the way, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. But, despite this status, the necropolis is not popular among tourists and local residents.

The city of the dead (Cairo), whose name is al Qarafa, in Arabic means "cemetery". It consists of five main cemeteries - Northern, Southern, Bab al-Nasr, Bab al-Wazir and the Great.

In memory of the departed

In the northern part of al-Karafa, the mausoleums and mosques of Sultans Inal and Kaitbey, Faraj Barquka, the complex of Barsbaye rise. In the southern part mazar mamluk and ancient structures of the time of the Fatimids were built.

Some tombs are already being destroyed, while others are untouched, since they are built of marble. As in life, noble people are buried in large tombs, and ordinary mortals have modest tombstones.

The city of the dead (Cairo) by its age refers to the oldest mass burial places. On its territory, people from various strata of society, both ordinary citizens and representatives of blue blood, have found peace. Many tourists are impressed by the majestic tombs of the rulers of the world, who lived several centuries ago, and also how their relatives honored the memory of their departed family members.

Initially, this cemetery was erected as a place for burial of Arab conquerors of Egypt, Abbasids, Fatimids, Mamelukes, Ottomans, and now has turned into one of the slums of Cairo, where the living and the dead co-exist in the neighborhood.

Living and dead

Today, this unusual metropolitan area is not only the last refuge for those who left for another world, but also the home of tens of thousands of poorest Cairo people who do not have another roof over their heads. The reason for this was the Egyptian crisis, the lack of affordable housing for a rapidly growing population. Therefore, many poor Egyptians chose the city of the dead as their home.

Some of them, in agreement with the relatives of the deceased, live directly in the tombs. As a rule, in return they undertake to look after the graves and restore order in the adjoining territory. Thanks to such an arrangement, the City of the Dead (Cairo) is much cleaner than some of the main streets of the capital.

Here you can often meet boys playing soccer, and women hanging clothes between tombstones. For many of them, the City of the Dead has become a real home for a long time. Life here is different from the one that is boiling in other parts of Cairo. The streets here are quiet, narrow, not asphalted. It seems that behind the high walls with decorative gates there is an entirely different world: around are continuous domes, minarets and no politics.

Al Qarafa: kings and poor

"I live here 80 years, and my family lived in this place for 350 years. King Farouk is buried next to my house, "- said in 2011 a local resident of the City of the Dead. Despite such a strange neighborhood, he believed that "living with the dead is a good thing for an old man." Indeed, it is much more terrible to be close to the living, from which you do not know what to expect.

Nevertheless, since the 60s of the last century, a kind of infrastructure has appeared here: shops have been opened, where you can buy food, clothes and souvenirs, even houses have been built. There is transportation here, people work here.

No one can accurately answer the question of how many people live in this gloomy quarter among millions of graves. Today, the population of the "City of the Dead" (Cairo) continues to grow because of the migration of villagers, natural disasters and a housing crisis. Presumably, we are talking about a half-million settlement.

City of the Dead (Cairo): reviews of tourists

Tourists who visit the City of the Dead, as a rule, are discouraged. For many of them it is strange to see a city with houses, where the mummified bodies of relatives of homeowners are stored. In their opinion, this spectacle is not for the faint-hearted. Despite the fact that people with low incomes live here, it is difficult for most tourists to understand how one can stay in a house with a tomb in another room to save on expenses.

Others, on the contrary, consider a walk through the City of the Dead very exciting. It is unusual for them that living people are constantly among the tombs, and they gladly respond to the offer of local residents to go to their homes.

And yet it is beautiful

But not all the guests of the capital pay attention to such moments. Many of them visit the City of the Dead (Cairo) to admire the most beautiful tombs of Arab rulers, for example, the mausoleum of Muhammad Ali. Fine creations of the masters of the past, who created by hand the majestic structures, do not leave indifferent true connoisseurs of architecture.

For some, this unusual place remained in memory as a 4-mile-long graveyard, in the territory of which the poorest inhabitants of Cairo live. They do not advise visiting the labyrinth of tombs, houses and the famous necropolis, since it is easy to get lost without a guide and you can become a victim of robbers and other criminals.

Nevertheless, having arrived on vacation in Egypt, visit the City of the Dead (Cairo), a photo of which does not give a complete picture of the true beauty of this area. Once on its streets, you will feel like a character "Thousand and One Nights".