Egypt is known not only for its the most ancient buildings... Many interesting buildings date back to the Islamic period. Among them, special attention can be paid to the huge number of mosques and mausoleums in Cairo that have come down to us from the Mamluk period (XIII-XVI centuries).
Mamluks are squads of slaves of Caucasian and Turkic origin. In Egypt, the beginning of the formation of such units dates back to the reign of Sultan Malik Saleh. The Mamluks were placed on the island of Roda on the river. In Arabic, the river is called "Bahr", therefore the first dynasty of Mamluk sultans is called here Bahrit Mamluks.
The time of the Mamluks is a time of endlessly feudal war, chaos and a change of power. On average, each of the sultans held the throne for only five years. Of course, each of them wanted to leave a mark on the history and architecture of the city, so this period left a special mark among the architectural monuments.
At this time, Cairo becomes large shopping center and gets richer every day. This is due to the past crusades and Europe's interest in Egyptian goods, in particular, in spices. In addition, at this time, Cairo began to actively use as transshipment point between the countries of the East and Europe.
At the same time, the first buildings of the famous cemetery - the City of the Dead - appeared in the northeast of Cairo. After the first tombstone of Badr al-Gamali appeared here, the area began to grow and attract more and more attention. Many of these structures have not survived to our times intact, but there are still more than 50 objects here.
The main peak of the buildings falls on the 15th century. All mausoleums are different, and, depending on the time of construction, have different architectural designs. The early buildings are more squat, while the later ones, on the contrary, look slender and elevated. But there are similarities - all the mausoleums are square in plan, slightly elongated and decorated with a dome. You can also highlight the abundance of windows and doorways. It may seem to someone that the mausoleums themselves have a rather meager appearance, so it is worth looking at them as an integral ensemble.
During my independent trip in Cairo in the fall of 2008, I happened to visit the "City of the Dead", a giant Muslim cemetery in the center of Cairo, or rather a small part of it, located near the walls of the Citadel. 
However, this relatively small area between the South and North cemeteries gives a complete picture of the identity of the ancient Cairo cemeteries. 
Here, among the tombs of ordinary Egyptians, you can also see many Mamluk mausoleums. 
This is a huge necropolis, perhaps the largest in the world. Cemeteries have existed here since the 12th century. and began to expand from the 15th century, the most ancient tombs date back to this period. 
And despite this, the city of the dead is rarely visited by tourists. There are many fears and phobias of "white people" associated with this place, there are ubiquitous beggars and homeless people living in graves and, in general, fear of any necropolis. 
All photos in this post are by Alexander Emelyanov 
Cairo's cemeteries are inhabited - more than 10,000 refugees from Palestine and those who cannot afford housing among the living live here. Often, homeless people live in crypts with the consent of the relatives of the deceased, at the same time keeping order. Some of the tombs are supplied with electricity, garages and shops. So it is whole city in the town. 
The shapes of the tombs are very different: some are simple stone tombstones, others are real mausoleums, erected in order to shelter the remains of emirs and sultans. But these are exceptions. Most are small one- or two-room houses with gardens - a relic of the funeral traditions of the era of the pharaohs, which are preserved today in the Coptic community. Such areas and such pleasant "dwellings" began to quickly attract beggars, who gradually occupied these places. The situation worsened even more when in 1967 refugees from the Suez Canal area infiltrated here. In principle, the unauthorized settlement of the homeless was nothing new, but this unexpected invasion of at least 300 thousand people created huge problems and threatened to lead to the most dire consequences. However, very soon the situation was corrected. The government was able to provide housing for some of these people. Egypt managed to solve this problem, and cemeteries did not turn into horrific ghettos. Much of the City of the Dead is well maintained. 
Having got here, as if you are in the thick of centuries 
For example, in this particular place, nothing seems to have changed for 500 years
The full version of the report on my visit to the Cairo cemeteries can be seen
City of the Dead (Egypt) - description, history, location. Exact address, phone number, website. Reviews of tourists, photos and videos.
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The small Egyptian city of Luxor can safely claim the title of one of the most interesting cities the world. It is here that many ancient sights are concentrated, for the sake of which thousands of tourists come to Egypt every year. The right bank of the Nile and everything that is located on it is called the City of the Living, the left bank - the City of the Dead. In the City of the Living, tourists can see the Luxor and Karnak Temples, in the City of the Dead - the Valley of Kings and Queens, the Hatshepsut Temple, the Medinet Abu funerary temple, the Colossi of Memnon.
To get to the City of the Dead, tourists need to cross to the other side of the Nile. The very fact that you are sailing in a small boat on one of the longest rivers in the world fascinates many travelers.
The most known sites in the City of the Dead, one can name the Valley of the Kings and the Temple of Hatshepsut. In the Valley of the Kings, there are the burials of the pharaohs - a total of about 40 tombs. It was here that the tomb of Tutankhamun was discovered. Temple of Hatshepsut was built during the reign of Queen Hatshepust, during which Egypt flourished. This monumental structure is very different from others. historical monuments Egypt. Scientists are inclined to believe that this temple became the basis for many architectural buildings worldwide.
To get to the City of the Dead, tourists need to cross to the other side of the Nile. The very fact that you are sailing in a small boat on one of the longest rivers in the world fascinates many travelers. Tourists will get even more impressions when they see the famous colossi of Memnon - huge stone statues of Pharaoh Amenhotep III. The massive blocks of stones were quarried from a quarry near present-day Cairo. Each statue weighs about 700 tons! Interestingly, the stones were transported overland as they were too heavy to be carried up the Nile.
City of the dead
The idea of \u200b\u200bbuilding a necropolis of rather impressive size belonged to Pharaoh Thutmose I. He decided to choose a special place for his tomb, so that no one could plunder it later. The grave was supposed to be located far from the main burials - in a special burial vault carved into the rocks. The example of Thutmose I was followed by many Egyptian rulers - thus they were buried for 500 years.
The Valley of the Queens, where members of the pharaohs' family were buried, is also located nearby. These tombs were much more modestly decorated, but nevertheless they were also constantly plundered. One of the most beautiful tombs is the tomb of Queen Nefertari, decorated with sculptures. However, tourists cannot get into it: it is closed due to the threat of extinction.
The memorial temple of Ramses III Medinat Abu is almost never visited by tourists due to its inconvenient location. Nevertheless, the temple is of interest, since bas-reliefs and paintings have been preserved on its walls.
There is Egypt tourist - all-inclusive package, beach, diving, evening beer, obligatory boredom. And there is a mysterious Egypt, which you have to conquer yourself, having agreed with the agency on an individual tour. You can only travel to local shrines accompanied by guards. The exception is Cairo and its surroundings. The prerequisites for going to the Egyptian people are an inner readiness for miracles and a share of adventurism. Observing etiquette in clothes (exposed areas of the body are minimized), you can safely visit several important points of the city - real places of power.
Cairo Museum
It is located in the very center of the city - a solid building in which 120 thousand exhibits sleep and dream. Museums in general are a phenomenon. For some reason, the tombs are considered scary and mysterious, but museums, which keep all the same, only in much larger quantities, are known as abodes of boredom. Meanwhile, ethereal shadows roam their corridors and weird as they please. How many times the author of these lines, wandering alone in the enfilades of Kuskovo or Fontainebleau, noticed a movement in the corner of his eye or a restrained laugh. 
The Cairo Museum has quite a lot of visitors - this is a minus. There are many halls in it, that there is an opportunity to get lost - that's a plus. The most popular part of the museum belongs to the mummies and the golden mask of Tutankhamun. The most interesting is for the family of Akhenaten and Nefertiti.
The upper floors store small objects (Fayum portraits, dishes and utensils). It is relatively calm here, and only the most sensitive researchers of the incomprehensible can hear whispers and rustles here. Much more active is the invisible life on the ground floor, in the right gallery (if you look from the entrance). A cluster of figures awaits you there - from human height and above, above ... Giants surround the visitor from all sides. Nothing threatening, you feel moderate interest and should behave yourself.
An ordinary tourist flies through this corridor rapidly, justifying himself by the fact that he is tired, that he has been wandering around the museum idle for two hours already, that he is thirsty and hungry (there is no food inside the museum). Knowing a lot about miracles, freezes in the corridor of megaliths for a long time. There are lonely giants, couples and even triplets - the ruler, his wife and his right hand, friend and advisor. Hours pass in pondering how high the relationship should be in such unions. You look at them, they look at you.
Coptic quarter
This is a strange place that is always undergoing renovation. Consists of a luxurious museum, the ceremonial church of the Virgin (Al-Muallaka), 
church of St. Sergius
and the streets of Old Cairo, located significantly below the asphalt level.
As you descend the steps, you plunge into the depths of time - or into yourself? Feelings are contradictory. There are hundreds of worshipers and pilgrims around. There are not so few Christians in Egypt, and they all come to pray here, in the area of \u200b\u200bBabylon. 
The fact is that Copts are Christians, forgotten in a Muslim country. They did not accept the schism of the churches, were eternally persecuted and despised, left behind naive art - dancing men with big eyes. Their icons are painted as if artlessly, but the more you look at them, the deeper you understand the Coptic style “let's be like children”.
There is a synagogue on the territory of the Coptic quarter. Copts are kind, they accept everyone who is bad. And at certain times you can go down to the cave, where the holy family supposedly hid during the flight from Egypt, and then several ascetics lived in it, century after century. I don't know about the family, but the dungeon is very prayerful. Going down into it, you feel a special kind of excitement and delight.
All these places are described in detail in guidebooks, but at the end of the labyrinth of Old Cairo there is one inconspicuous church in which happiness lives. It is difficult to describe in words the church concept of "grace". Scientists would say something there about the breakdown of trace elements and their entry into some centers of pleasure. The cult workers would raise their eyes to the sky. It was enough for me that birds sang in this church. 
You enter a small, not very well-kept church of St. Barbara. For some reason, you sit down - in Coptic churches there are shops, as in Catholic churches. You sit for two minutes and realize that large tears are rolling out of your eyes. That you are so light and sorry for everyone, that you as an egoistic unit do not exist at all. And over all this storm of feelings invisible goldfinches sing. They nest above the vault, high under the roof. They are not chased. They understand that it is their chirping that creates an unprecedented psychedelic effect.
If we talk about paranormal phenomena officially recorded, then there are enough of them in the Coptic diaspora. In the Church of St. Sergius, a cross is streaming over the described cave. Twenty years ago, a night radiance was recorded without a light source in the church of St. mch. Damiana in the Shubra region of Cairo. The most famous miracle was in Zeytun on the outskirts of Cairo: the Mother of God appeared there many times, large, with a crowd of people, on the roof of a Coptic church. Mirages happened throughout 1968, and even if it was someone's scam (to fog up and project a filmstrip on it), it was done not out of malice, but for the good. Because you can only support a superstitious people by a miracle.
City of the dead
A cemetery where quite cheerful people live.
The gigantic necropolis of El Khalifa, partly inhabited - this is how the government solved the housing problem. The cemetery for the Egyptian rich consists of pleasant little estates: a house of four rooms, a small garden, even some architectural excesses are present. Most of the houses have an owner, a buried ancestor. But the owner is reluctant to go to the necropolis every week, to keep an eye on the garden, and dust off the house. Therefore, he allows a certain hardworking family to settle in the tomb house, which will honor what remains of their eminent relative in the past, and will not let the house fall apart. Some even pay extra to the settlers for their labors.
The inhabitants of the City of the Dead live off tourism. For the entrance to the house and inspection of the grave they take from the dollar and above from the nose. Several hundred curious people pass through the city every day - children beg for imported pens, adults call them into their homes. El-Khalifa has everything: mosques, shops, teahouses, cafes, tire fitting-collapse-convergence. There are quiet and wild places of desolation where you want to wander Byronically. Only the locals themselves do not advise. They say that this is European nonsense, in fact, it's scary there, hungry ghosts and outraged beggars are prowling around.
Tatiana Arefieva.Published: Magic Cosmo January 2006.
City of the Dead or El-Arafa (in Arabic cemetery), as the Egyptians call this necropolis, is located in the southeast of Cairo. Tombs and mausoleums are located on 6 square kilometers. The city of the dead is a rather interesting place, because people live and work in this cemetery.
The first burials in Dead city were produced during the Arab conquest of Egypt. And this, neither more nor less, 642 BC.
Period of Arab conquest of Egypt
The Arab commander-in-chief Amr ibn al-As founded the first family cemetery here. His example was followed by other Arab generals, and soon a real network of Arab cemeteries was formed at the hill called Mokattam. Around this time, special tombs were created here, in which, for example, distant relatives of the Prophet Mohammed himself were buried. These tombs attracted the attention of numerous Muslim pilgrims who carried the news of the new cemetery throughout Egypt and far beyond.
During the Fatimid Caliphate, the development of the necropolis received a new round. The four largest cemeteries were combined into a single complex surrounded by a capital wall.
Creation of the first mausoleums
Egypt XIV-XV centuries, Mamluk period. The country is divided into numerous small feuds, headed by the Mamluk sultans, who at all times were distinguished by bloodthirstiness and aggression. Feudal wars flare up one by one, taking both ordinary soldiers and famous military leaders to the grave. One of these kings was a certain Badr al-Gamali, whose mausoleum was first built in El-Araf, around the 13th century.
Each of the other sultans also strove to leave a mark on the history and architecture of Cairo. This could be done in the form of a monument or a mausoleum. By the 15th century, most of these structures were built. Naturally, the construction required both materials and a real army of workers, who settled around in their own houses, but more often in dormitories, which the sultans built at their own expense.
The tombs that formed the necropolis at the end of the 15th century received new form: from squat buildings, they turned into real works of monumental art, striking both in form and height. The cemetery expanded, absorbing workers' areas. Local infrastructure was created, its own trade developed, and over the next five centuries the necropolis created a special urban area around itself.
Some of the most famous tombs of the Dead City are worth mentioning:
- Tomb of El Hussein - the great-grandson of the Prophet Mohammed
- Zayida Zainab - patron saint of Cairo, sister of the martyr El Hussein
- Sheikh Ali, famous for miracles during his lifetime
- Al Salih Ayib - the last of the Ayyib sultan dynasty
- Shagar Al Durr - widow of Al Salih Ayib, ruler of the beginning of the Mamluk era
- Patron saints Nafisa, Rukkaya, Atik and Sukaina
City of the Dead: Our Time
In the 40s of the XX century, a large number of impoverished villagers moved to the dead city, who began to settle in crypts and burial vaults in exchange for the improvement of the graves and their care. This kind of business has survived to this day.
Currently, the City of the Dead is one of the landmarks of Cairo. The number of people living in it - residents with extremely low incomes - already exceeds the number of burials.
Each of the approximately fifty mausoleums of the Dead City, taken individually, cannot boast of an attractive appearance... The fault is not so much architectural stylehow old they are. Nevertheless, together they create a unique historical ensemble that attracts with its color and originality.
Since el-Arafa ceased to be a functioning cemetery several centuries ago, the people inhabiting it are mostly small artisans and traders living below the poverty line. Only a few of them actually live on the graves of their ancestors. Most of modern population The Dead City moved here as a result of the massive development of the city center and the demolition of dilapidated housing in Cairo, which began in the 50s, during the presidency of Abdel Nassr. Also, many villagers moved here, moving to Cairo in search of a better life.
In 1992, after the devastating earthquake in Cairo, the City of the Dead was replenished with new residents. At present, its population is about half a million inhabitants.
The city of the dead is now the ruins of ancient mausoleums are taken under state protection
Despite the fact that a visit to El Arafa is not on the list of the most popular tourist routes, this place is definitely worth a visit in order to feel the spirit and see the way of real Arab life. We recommend that you only go on this trip with a local escort or an experienced guide.
