The City of the Dead

     In Cairo, there is an entire city full of tombs of, well, dead people.  There is also a housing crisis for the extremely poor.  Therefore, people have moved in with the tombs.  After our enlightening visit to Garbage City, Shelbi and I asked ourselves, "What could make this day any more depressing?  I know, a visit to see people who live with tombs!  Let's go to the City of the Dead!"  (note, this is the actual name of the city).  So we did.

Khaled, our now good friend of a taxi driver, brought us to an actual house to see it for ourselves.  And in this woman's courtyard, there was a child's bike.  And the shiny Huffy complete with streamers and a pimped out horn was sitting right on, you got it, a tomb.  I thought it was kind of a strange image, new bike, tombstone...The woman explained that it was her ancestor's plot.  Apparently you can only live with dead people if they are your ancestors.  You know, I could understand having a private cemetery in the backyard, people do that right, but imagine having it in your living room!  And THOUSANDS of families live like this.  Could this city get any more depressing?

After our enlightening visit to Garbage City, Shelbi and I asked ourselves, "What could make this day any more depressing? I know, a visit to see people who live with tombs! Let's go to the City of the Dead!"

On a happier note, Shelbi and I are traveling to Dahab tonight, which is on the Sinai peninsula.  We are going to spend the next three days laying on the beach, only moving to go in the water.  We are going to speak English with all the tourists there, wear shorts, and uncover our hair.  It's gonna be fun.