Living among the dead
By antoine themistocleous
10 Feb 2008
I was spending some time in Egypt for a wedding, when I found out about this section in Cairo, the Northern Cemetery, which is not only a resting place for Cairo's dead and buried, but for the living too. The vast mausoleum complexes they built were more than just tombs, they were also meant as places for entertaining. This is a part of Egyptian tradition that has its roots in Pharaonic times when people would picnic among the graves. Even the humblest of family tombs were designed to include a room where visitors could stay overnight. The dead hoped they would be remembered; the city's homeless saw their tombs as free accommodation. This was happening as far back as the 14th century, leading to the situation today where the living and dead coexist comfortably side by side. In some tomb-houses, cenotaphs serve as tables and washing is strung between headstones.
I was intrigued when I learned all this, and decided to go and possibly make a story out of it. To my disappointment, I was met with a great deal of resentment. People did not want to have their photo taken, and twice I was asked to leave the area by the police telling me I wasn't allowed to take pictures in this neighborhood.
On my third visit, I was lucky to be welcomed by the Abdil Rehnel family and see how they lived. My first surprise was how many people live in such a small living space. They told me that over 20 family members live together. The youngest was a seven-year-old boy and the oldest was a lady who was so old that she didn't even know how old she was, she just stop counting a long time ago. Their best guess was that she was in her nineties.
This very warm family has been living at that tomb for the past seventy years. Unfortunately I only got to spend two hours with them before some started getting paranoid they would get in trouble by the police for allowing me to take their picture. I left Egypt the next day.
