The plain, which extends at the foot of the Mokattam Hills to the southeast of Cairo, has served as an important burial ground since the arrival of the Muslim Arab conquerors in Egypt in the 7th century. Indeed, among the first prominent figures believed to be buried was the commander who led this campaign, Amr ibn al-As, who eventually served as the governor of the country.
Since then, successive Egyptian rulers have expanded the necropolis into a vast network of cemeteries also known as the “City of the Dead”. It consists of the southern and northern cemeteries, which together cover an area of approximately 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) about 1,000 hectares.
Now, however, a significant portion of this historic site is being reduced to rubble by an aggressive government road plan. Although few details have been released, critics believe the plans will ruin the city’s urban fabric and fear hundreds of Islamic architectural treasures will be destroyed along with funerary art.
In the labyrinthine interior of the necropolis are innumerable tombs and mausoleums, some of great artistic and architectural value, housing important figures from the country’s past, including former kings, but also politicians, poets, scholars, writers, military figures and high-ranking civil servants . Some of these cemeteries were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.
The cemetery grounds are also home to thousands of lower-class families, many of them for generations, and while lacking infrastructure, they have organically integrated into this idiosyncratic urban space, where it is not always easy to discern where where there is a home ends and a small mausoleum begins.
Several tombs and houses in Cairo’s City of the Dead.Marc English
“It’s a tremendous loss of a 1,400-year-old historical legacy,” says Galila El Kadi, architect, author of Architecture for the Dead: Cairo’s Medieval Necropolis, and research director at the Research Institute for Sustainable Development in Paris. “It is a loss as to the graves of those buried there; a loss in memory of these places and in security [of the dead] in their last place of rest and peace.”
One of the goals of the Egyptian authorities is to relieve traffic in Cairo and facilitate mobility. However, skeptics believe these plans are often counterproductive and only benefit a minority. They also warn that they would be implemented in a hurry and without public debate, and would change the identity of many areas of the capital.
The alarm first went off for Cairo’s culture vultures in 2020, when the construction of two road networks brought the first notable changes to the cemeteries, particularly the Mamluk necropolis. “The area affected by the demolition work is 100 hectares there, which is 1% of the total of all necropolises and is more than twice the size of the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris,” says El Kadi.
However, the demolition work has apparently been put on hold after it sparked significant outcry on social networks and local media, and also after UNESCO expressed its concerns. But that lull was cut short a month ago and the bulldozers are back in action, concentrating on two large cemeteries south of Cairo.
“The governor of Cairo announced before the final demolition work in May 2023 that 2,500 graves would be demolished,” notes El Kadi. “However, we cannot know the exact number as it would require an investigation into the governorate archives, which is not possible in the current context.”
Work in part of the Cairo Necropolis at the foot of the Citadel. Mark Spanish
Since the authorities’ plans have not been published, the criteria for demolition work are also unclear. It appears that some of the most iconic tombs will not be demolished, but among those already destroyed during this most recent campaign are that of the first Speaker of Egypt’s Parliament between 1902 and 1909, Abdel Hamid Basha Saddiq, and one of the loudest of a campaign by the Civil society, Abdullah Afandi Zohdi is the country’s most famous calligrapher.
“We don’t have details on what they want to do,” says Mostafa Elsadek, one of the leading members of the initiative that works to protect Cairo’s historic cemeteries. “They didn’t give them to us, so we don’t have a clear idea. We know they won’t get rid of the historical monuments, but if there’s a tomb that’s very ornate and more than 150 years old, it’s not [legally] As it is considered a historical monument it is a problem.”
El Kadi also fears that the monuments preserved in isolation will be adversely affected if left isolated. “Registered monuments are at risk from air pollution, vibration from traffic and any change in their environment, such as being surrounded by a network of highways and roads,” he says.
The new demolition campaign has reactivated the voices of the group of architects, historians and culture enthusiasts in Cairo, formed in late 2021 to document the endangered tombs and highlight the importance of their preservation. An online petition has already collected more than 5,000 signatures, and the controversy is being talked about on social networks and the country’s most popular TV shows.
One of the boundaries of Cairo’s Imam al-Shafi Cemetery, with a road widened in recent years passing directly in front of it. Mark Spanish
This group has even gone so far as to come up with alternative plans to the government’s road project to avoid demolition. But Elsadek says their plans were never considered. With authorities refusing to look into the issue, many families living in the affected areas have simply accepted offers from the state to move to other homes.
“We initially suggested an alternative because they hadn’t demolished anything yet,” says Elsadek. “But now they destroy quite a bit. We are not able to tell them that there are alternatives because they have already started the work.” Legal avenues are being considered in a last-ditch effort to stop the demolition. In late May, the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR) filed an administrative complaint against the authorities responsible for the necropolises, including the prime minister and governor of Cairo, urging them to stop the demolition and protect the heritage.
“This is our last chance,” says prominent human rights lawyer Malek Adly, director of ECESR. “We are really concerned because attacks on this area have increased. We realized that all previous attempts, claims and complaints had failed, leaving us with no choice but to go to court.”
In response to the criticism, Egyptian President Abdelfattah Al Sisi in mid-June asked the relevant authorities to construct a new cemetery to house the remains of the “Icons of Egypt” now in the City of the Dead. The location and criteria for selecting the tombs to be moved have yet to be determined, although it is believed that the cemetery will most likely be built outside of Cairo.
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