Residents and preservationists protest Cairo ‘City of The Dead’ cemetery demolition

Last updated on September 11th, 2021 at 02:35 pm

Residents and preservationists have registered their alarm as demolition continues in the Cairo cemetery complex known as the City Of The Dead.

The work’s being undertaken as part of a new 17.5 kilometre highway project. The highway, named Al-Ferdaous – or Paradise – is intended to connect major road arteries and ease traffic in the city of 20 million, as well as provide better links to the regions.

But preservationists say that the work is destroying many important structures included in UNESCO’s World Heritage Site of historic Cairo.

The City of the Dead has been developed over many centuries and contains the graves of ordinary people as well as the elaborate mausoleums of historical rulers and celebrated figures.

Cairo-based independent journalist Sharif Kouddoustweeted that his family burial plot was partially demolished to make way for the highway:

“We had to move the bodies of my grandmother, grandfather and great-grandfather.”

The complex also contains communities of people living in buildings and walled yards that surround each gravesite. Mother-of-three Menna said she was caught off guard when a bulldozer flattened much of the mausoleum her family use as their home:

“The earth-mover suddenly hit the wall and we found ourselves throwing our things (out) in a panic. They kicked us out on the street.

(AFP)