
World
Between Two Worlds: Living in the City of The Dead
In the sprawling Cairo Necropolis, known as the City of the Dead, life and death exist side by side.




A caretaker digs a grave in preparation for a burial on Sept. 13, 2015. A caretaker typically gets 150 Egyptian pounds ($19) for each new grave dug for poor families, and between 400 and 500 Egyptian pounds from richer customers, residents say. Of that, the gravedigger then receives between 50 to 70 Egyptian pounds.

A woman washes clothes in front of the small room where she lives in the cemetery on Sept. 13, 2015. "Living with the dead is very easy and comfortable," says Nassra Muhamed Ali, 47, right. "It's the people who are living who harm you." Nassra, who lives there with her two brothers and 16-year-old daughter, says the relative peace and quiet of the area has its downsides. Some from outside the neighborhood use the graves to deal drugs, with theft also being an issue, she says.

A general view of the Cairo Necropolis, Egypt, on Oct. 14, 2015. It's the oldest burial site in the city, dating back as far as 1,000 years, near the Al-Azhar Mosque. Those buried there include famous actors, among them Farid al-Atrash and his sister Asmahan, who appeared in Egyptian movies until the 1960s.


