EGYPT: Living in a cemetery (video)

CAIRO, 6 February 2008 (IRIN) -
This video short looks at how up to a million poor people have made one of the biggest burial grounds in Egypt their home. Dubbed ‘the City of the Dead’ and located on the outskirts of the capital, Cairo, many of the families who live there migrated from rural areas in search of work. In the cemetery grounds, they can live rent-free in exchange for guarding tombstones housed in mud houses.

As Cairo’s population of an estimated 18 million continues to grow every year, so too does the demand for housing. Yahya Mohammed and his family of three moved to the cemetery five years ago. It’s a basic existence for them, without sanitation or electricity. He digs graves in exchange for a roof over his head.

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