by Hassan Ansah

Created on: August 15, 2008   Last Updated: November 24, 2008

LIFE AFTER DEATH IN CAIRO'S CITY OF THE DEAD

Egypt has had an intimate relationship with the concept of death since time immemorial. The long tradition of funerary culture, mythology, as well as architecture of pharaonic Egypt persisted throughout the Greek, Roman, as well as the Christian periods. Islamic Egypt would not be an exception, despite the Arab conquerors' surface aversion to the ancient practices of the cult of the dead and to its physical locus, the cemeteries.

For many Egyptians the City of the Dead is a mysterious, foreboding, and even disdained area. The majority of Cairenes are only marginally aware of its existence, but even fewer understand the large historical relevance and complex culture that make up this group of vast cemeteries that stench out along the base of the Moqattam Hills. To truly appreciate the importance of this community of Cairo, let's first give a short history.
Sketchy estimates have the potential number of more than three million inhabitants living among this urban scuffle, garbage, and seemingly desperate stretch of chaos officially known as Qarafa, better known as the City of Dead. If one simply scratches the surface, one can see that within these cemeteries lives an often hidden, vibrant, and even cohesive dimension of Cairo's urban poor, forming a sometimes illegal, but often tolerated separate society having its own communities, values, and traditions.

There are four major cemeteries that build the foundation of for what are collectively known as the Cities of the Dead: The Northern Cemetery, the Southern Cemetery, the Cemetery of the Great, and Bab el Wazir. The Qarafa Cemetery came into Conception parallel with the birth of the rest of Cairo. In the year 639 AD when General Amr Ibn Al-As cam into Egypt with his army and teaching of Islam, there was no Cairo as we know it. The ancient city of Heliopolis was located on the east bank and the ancient capital of Memphis was located among the pyramids on the west bank of the Nile. After the defeat of the Roman army, the Arab conquerors set up their camp garrison city of Fustat or the Entrenched Camp. Ironically the cemeteries actually existed years before the official birth of Cairo itself.
As I arrived in the City of Dead, both my driver and the interpreter wanted to first showcase the vast historical mosques which palpitate throughout Qarafa. I told my guide and interpreter that I first wanted to meet some of the actual everyday people that inhabit this city. Growing up

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