The city of the dead

The city of the dead, photo essay by Michele Cortina

In a city in Egypt of 18 million people, called Cairo, where is chaos and traffic, there is another city, where the streets are sand, people walk calmly and the loudest noise you hear are the voices of children playing. That’s the so-called “City of the Dead”, an area covering more than 6 kilometers that is home to the largest Islamic cemeteries in Cairo since 600 a.C.
The City of the Dead is a cemetery, but it is not just a cemetery. It’s a part of the city where around graves, Living have built their homes and have become residents and at the same time custodians of the tombs.
In the City of the Dead lives about one million and half people and many residents consider themselves lucky. Living in the City of the Dead often means escape from the overwhelming Cairo, where the high cost of adequate houses and the steady and fast growth of the population is generating uncontrolled neighborhoods and hostile places.
Here inside, the Dead are surrounded by gardens, patios, living rooms and kitchens and the Living have water, electricity and other basic services that sometimes lack in certain areas of the same Cairo.
There are Living who weep for their missing loved ones and remember them by spending the day near the tombs, taking care of the flowers, eating and drinking together with family.
The other Living , who stay and live around the tombs, do their normal daily activities and just live, in the City of the Dead.
Here it’s Life and Death, together.

(by michele cortina)