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 the museums, which store all the same things, only in much larger quantities, are reputed to be the abode of boredom. Meanwhile, their corridors are roaming ethereal shadows and bizarre as they please. How many times did the author of these lines, wandering alone in the enfilade of Kuskovo or Fontainebleau, notice a movement in the corner of her eye or a restrained chuckle. 
There are quite a lot of visitors in the Cairo Museum - this is a minus. There are a lot of halls in it, that there is an opportunity to get lost - this is a plus. The most popular part of the museum belongs to the mummies and the golden mask of Tutankhamen. The most interesting is 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 explorers of the incomprehensible can hear whispers and rustles here. The invisible life is much more active on the first floor, in the right gallery (when viewed from the entrance). There you will find a cluster of figures - from human height and higher, higher ... Giants surround the visitor from all sides. Nothing threatening, you feel moderate interest and should behave decently.
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, that he wants to drink and eat (there is no food inside the museum). Knowing a lot about miracles, freezes in the corridor of megaliths for a long time. There are single giants here, there are couples and even triplets - the ruler, his wife and his right hand, friend and adviser. Hours pass in reflection on how high relations should be in such unions. You look at them, they look at you.
coptic quarter
This is a strange place that is always being renovated. It consists of a luxurious museum, the front church of the Virgin (Al-Muallaq), 
Church of St. Sergius
and the streets of Old Cairo, located significantly below the asphalt level.
When you go down the stairs, do you go deep into time - or deep into yourself? Feelings are conflicting. 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 Babylon. 
The fact is that the Copts are Christians forgotten in a Muslim country. They did not accept the schism of churches, they were eternally persecuted and despised, they left behind a naive art - dancing little 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 in the Coptic quarter. Copts are kind, they accept everyone who feels bad. And at certain hours you can go down to the cave where the holy family allegedly 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 about the breakdown of trace elements and their entry into some pleasure centers. Cult workers would raise their eyes to the sky. It was enough for me that birds sang in this church. 
You go into a small, not very well-kept church of St. Barbara. For some reason, you sit down - in Coptic churches there are benches, as in Catholic churches. You sit for two minutes and realize that large tears are rolling from 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 driven. They understand that it is their chatter 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 Sergius, a cross streams myrrh over the described cave. Twenty years ago, night lights were recorded without a light source in the church of St. mch. Damian in the Shubra district of Cairo. The most famous miracle was in Zeytun on the outskirts of Cairo: the Mother of God repeatedly appeared there, 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 blow fog and project a filmstrip on it), it was not done out of evil, but for good. Because it is possible to support a superstitious people only by a miracle.
A cemetery where quite cheerful people live.
The giant necropolis of El Khalifa, partly inhabited - this is how the government solved the housing problem. The cemetery for the wealthy in Egyptian style consists of pleasant little estates: a four-room house, a small garden, even some architectural excesses are present. Most of the houses have an owner, an ancestor of the buried. But the owner is reluctant to go to the necropolis every week, look after the garden, brush off the dust in the house. Therefore, he allows some hard-working family to settle in the grave house, which will honor what is left of their eminent relative in the past, and the house will not fall apart. Others even pay the settlers for their work.
The inhabitants of the City of the Dead live off tourism. For the entrance to the house and the inspection of the grave, they take from a dollar and more from the nose. During the day, several hundred curious people pass through the city - children beg for imported pens from them, adults invite them into their homes. El Khalifa has everything: mosques, shops, tea houses, cafes, tire fitting, wheel alignment. There are quiet and wild places of desolation where one wants to roam Byronically. Only the locals themselves do not advise. They say that these are European stupidities, in fact, it’s scary there, hungry ghosts and brutalized beggars dart around.
Tatyana Arefieva.Published: Magic Cosmo January 2006.
The capital of Egypt, Cairo, combines the features of a modern metropolis and ancient city, where "oases" of ancient culture and history are found everywhere. A striking example of such an "oasis" is the city of the dead or, as the locals call it, al Qarafa ("cemetery"). This ancient place burial stretched for 6 km from south to north of Cairo and goes around the capital of Egypt from the east side.
Note to tourists
Citadel Hill divides the ancient cemetery of Cairo into southern and northern parts. Here you can find many monuments of the Mamluk period. Egyptian history. Cairo city of the dead - one of the oldest known to man cemeteries on the planet. Its age is over 2000 years old. Here are buried both ordinary citizens and the nobility, up to the sultans. Single graves and many family mausoleums have been living together in this necropolis for many years now. The city of the dead in Cairo is quite interesting for its architecture. However, the city of the dead is not often visited by owners of tours to Egypt, especially from European countries.
Sightseeing tour You can start from anywhere in the city of the dead in Cairo, but it’s worth planning a route by climbing a hill, since it’s quite difficult to navigate while being directly on the necropolis. Northern part The ancient cemetery of Cairo keeps on its land such historical monuments as the mausoleum, mosque and khanaka of Sultan Inal, the mausoleum and mosque of Faraj Barquq, the complexes of Barsbey and Sultan Kaitbey. In the southern part, there are mainly mausoleums of the "river" bakhri Mamluks, and sometimes you can even find buildings from the time of the Fatimids. It should be noted that here, as a rule, the age of the monuments is older than in the north of the necropolis.
Interesting information
The main feature of the Cairo necropolis is that here, strange as it may sound, life is in full swing, and this is not an exaggeration. Shops and houses were built in the necropolis, people work and live here, cars and buses drive. Some residents of the city of the dead settled here to be closer to their dead ancestors, close people. For some, living in a necropolis is due to the inability to provide themselves with housing in another part of the city.
It's hard to believe, but many people live right in the crypts. According to some reports, more than 10 thousand people live here, forming a kind of "city within a city." Very often, the homeless live in crypts, having received the consent of the relatives of the deceased, and at the same time keep order in the burials. A significant part of the necropolis is maintained in good condition, probably largely due to the fact that people live here. By the way, there is less garbage here than on some central streets in Cairo.
The trend towards the settlement of the cemetery arose in the 60s of the 20th century - beggars settled here, as well as refugees from the Suez Canal area. Soon, the scale of the settlement began to take on a threatening character, but the Egyptian government managed to cope with the situation, and some people were provided with housing behind the oldest cemetery in Cairo. As the number of inhabitants grew, so did the number of burials - the settlers eventually filled the tombs with themselves, which is facilitated by, among other factors high level mortality in Egypt. This conclusion suggests itself due to the fact that in old photographs the mausoleums are located quite freely.
During my independent travel 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 not far from the walls of the Citadel. 
However, this relatively small area between the bulks of the Southern and Northern cemeteries gives a complete picture of the originality 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 belong 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, here are the ubiquitous beggars and homeless people living in graves and in general fear of any necropolis. 
The author of all photos in this post is Alexander Emelyanov 
Cairo cemeteries are inhabited - more than 10,000 refugees from Palestine and those who cannot afford housing among the living live here. Often, the homeless live in crypts with the consent of the relatives of the deceased, at the same time looking after order. Some tombs are supplied with electricity, garages and benches. Thus it is whole city in the city. 
The forms of the tombs are very different: some are simple stone gravestones, others are real mausoleums erected in order to shelter the remains of emirs and sultans. But these are exceptions. The majority are small one- or two-room houses with gardens - a relic of the burial 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 escalated even more when in 1967 refugees from the Suez Canal region entered here. The squatting of the homeless was basically nothing new, but this unexpected incursion of at least 300,000 people created enormous problems and threatened to lead to dire consequences. However, the situation was soon corrected. The government was able to provide housing for some of these people. Egypt managed to solve this problem, and the cemeteries did not turn into horrifying ghettos. Much of the City of the Dead is well maintained. 
Once here, as if you find yourself 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
The City of the Dead (Qarafa) is one of the largest necropolises in the world. It is located on the outskirts of Cairo at the foot of the Mokattam Mountains. Cemeteries have existed here since the 12th century. and began to expand from the 15th century, the most ancient tombs belong to this period. The forms of the tombs are very different: some are simple stone gravestones, others are real mausoleums erected in order to shelter the remains of emirs and sultans. But these are exceptions. The majority are small one- or two-room houses with gardens. About 50 years ago, poor residents of Cairo and nearby regions began to settle in the cemetery. Now in the City of the Dead lives from 50 to 500 thousand people. The exact figure is not known even to the authorities.
In the foreground (see two photos below) are the graves of poor people. And the richer people are buried in the tomb houses. It is in these houses that the population of the City of the Dead lives.
View of the City of the Dead from the Citadel of Salah ad-Din:
In the first forty minutes of walking about the life of people, except for the garbage that is everywhere in Cairo, nothing reminded:
Then the signs of life began to appear:
Campaign posters of local candidates for deputies are quite common.
Children walk near the graves:
Someone carefully made a fence around the trees, but the garbage is not removed:
There are taxis in the City of the Dead:
When the authorities realized that the cemetery was inhabited by a huge number of people, water supply, electricity were installed, and schools were built. Nobody is going to disperse people. The housing problem in Cairo is much more acute than in Moscow.
Luxurious tombs of emirs and sultans are gradually being destroyed:
While going on a trip and looking at photos of Cairo on the Internet, back in Moscow I saw and wanted to visit a dilapidated mosque right in the middle of a steep mountainside. The hotel managers, who, by the way, were very skeptical about my trips to bad areas, did not give me any information. I had to look for this mosque on my own.
The search did not take long - I saw the mosque from the high walls of the Citadel, got into a taxi and after 10 minutes of driving along the King Khaled highway through the City of the Dead, I was not far from the goal.
It was impossible to go further by car, but I did not know how to get closer to the mosque, which, as it turned out, was called the Amir El-Guyush Mosque (Mosque Amir Al-Guyush, 1085). A local teenager of about fifteen volunteered to accompany me for a moderate fee. The road went through the cemetery again.
And here we are at the foot of the mountain. The mosque is only some 200 meters along a rather steep slope. I told my guide that I wanted to try to climb the mountain. He did not keep himself waiting. Light, being shod in simple slippers, he quickly overcame 50 meters of a steep climb. With a bag over my shoulder, which contained two cameras, a bottle of water and some other nonsense, I began my clumsy ascent. As a result, after 15 minutes, I was hopelessly stuck. Having laughed, the guide helped me down, and I decided to leave the conquest of the mountain until the next trip.
View from the Citadel. On the right in the background is the Amir El-Giyush Mosque. In the foreground is another colorful area of Cairo - Garbage City. There will be a next post about it.
P.S.
If someone managed to climb the mountain and visit inside the Amir El-Giyush mosque, please post photos and send a link. Thank you in advance!
Egypt is known not only for its ancient structures. 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, which have come down to us from the Mamluk period (XIII-XVI centuries).
Mamluks - detachments consisting 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 placement of the Mamluks was made on the island of Roda in the river. In Arabic, the river is called "Bahr", which is why the first dynasty of Mamluk sultans is called here the Bahri Mamluks.
The time of the Mamluks is the time of endless feudal war, chaos and 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 mall and getting richer every day. It is related to past crusades and European interest in Egyptian goods, in particular spices. In addition, at this time, Cairo begins to be actively used as a transit 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 gravestone of Badr al-Gamali appeared here, the area began to grow and attract more and more attention. Many of these structures have not reached our times intact, but there are still more than 50 objects here.
The main peak of buildings falls on the 15th century. All mausoleums are different, and, depending on the time of construction, have different architectural designs. Early buildings are more squat, while later ones, on the contrary, look slender and elevated. But there are also similar moments - 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 you should look at them as an integral ensemble.
