MSNBC: A guy was saying there are four million people living in the City of the Dead

[Joanne98]

They live in and around the tombs.

That's a disgrace!

[Kalyke]

1. There's a couple of photos on the Wiki page.

They have retrofitted tombs for residences:

Whoops... forgot the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_the_Dead_%28Cairo%29

[Cleita]

2. I read about that some time ago.

Well, the dead don't need them and probably have been removed centuries ago, so I don't think they would mind the living using the facilities.

[cali]

3. Here's an article about life there- it's 8 years old but interesting

By Hugh Levinson

Ahmed looks despairingly at the huge crack running down the back wall of his house. He does not have a water supply, sewage or electricity. There are no schools where he lives and no hospitals. If the crack widens the building could collapse and he will end up homeless.

His situation is not unusual for poor Egyptians. What is unusual is that his home is a tomb.

Living with the dead

Inside there are two faded green gravestones, which his family use as tables and arranging their cooking pots.


My daughter comes home from primary school and has to do her schoolwork between the tombs

Resident of City of the Dead

Ahmed, like many others lives in the old graveyards of Cairo, in the City of the Dead. No one knows exactly how many people live in the cemeteries. Estimates range from 30,000 to one million.

<snip>


other articles give a population figure as high as 5 million.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/crossing_continents/africa/1858022.stm

[Joanne98]

4. Thanks

[WolverineDG]

5. Yup, it's true

the poverty in Egypt is unbelievable. I've always wondered what "grinding poverty" looked like. It's so mind-numbingly huge, it's hard to say where you should start first to end poverty in that country.

dg