Dubai Telegraph - Egyptians exhume the dead as historic cemetery razed

EUR -
AED 3.865039
AFN 71.961868
ALL 97.885367
AMD 409.705534
ANG 1.898038
AOA 960.733931
ARS 1055.061215
AUD 1.613881
AWG 1.894109
AZN 1.787029
BAM 1.951539
BBD 2.126437
BDT 125.855234
BGN 1.956342
BHD 0.396578
BIF 3110.579445
BMD 1.052283
BND 1.414399
BOB 7.293078
BRL 6.086683
BSD 1.053191
BTN 88.848028
BWP 14.387453
BYN 3.446543
BYR 20624.740218
BZD 2.122845
CAD 1.469502
CDF 3014.78969
CHF 0.929776
CLF 0.037101
CLP 1023.776253
CNY 7.619996
CNH 7.625593
COP 4626.455438
CRC 534.824751
CUC 1.052283
CUP 27.885491
CVE 110.024795
CZK 25.350861
DJF 187.538784
DKK 7.458788
DOP 63.520417
DZD 140.573397
EGP 52.274979
ERN 15.78424
ETB 131.306162
FJD 2.388363
FKP 0.830585
GBP 0.832524
GEL 2.883571
GGP 0.830585
GHS 16.7185
GIP 0.830585
GMD 74.71233
GNF 9078.051459
GTQ 8.13025
GYD 220.338958
HKD 8.189863
HNL 26.613518
HRK 7.506205
HTG 138.346648
HUF 411.186809
IDR 16734.714279
ILS 3.929639
IMP 0.830585
INR 88.911049
IQD 1379.588093
IRR 44293.214291
ISK 145.520299
JEP 0.830585
JMD 166.933965
JOD 0.746386
JPY 162.676061
KES 136.007134
KGS 91.02957
KHR 4249.68174
KMF 491.94202
KPW 947.053999
KRW 1471.222726
KWD 0.323672
KYD 0.877684
KZT 523.167824
LAK 23125.51255
LBP 94319.785398
LKR 306.411046
LRD 190.622024
LSL 19.101997
LTL 3.107117
LVL 0.636515
LYD 5.138732
MAD 10.521031
MDL 19.167154
MGA 4930.189594
MKD 61.546561
MMK 3417.773046
MNT 3575.656436
MOP 8.443666
MRU 41.866002
MUR 48.839087
MVR 16.268296
MWK 1826.195708
MXN 21.380416
MYR 4.698412
MZN 67.293799
NAD 19.101997
NGN 1768.455747
NIO 38.755022
NOK 11.613586
NPR 142.154623
NZD 1.792324
OMR 0.40513
PAB 1.053101
PEN 3.996674
PGK 4.239684
PHP 62.126243
PKR 292.773138
PLN 4.342422
PYG 8247.914831
QAR 3.840515
RON 4.977085
RSD 117.020141
RUB 106.281009
RWF 1452.315514
SAR 3.95054
SBD 8.79238
SCR 14.332083
SDG 632.944958
SEK 11.610939
SGD 1.413951
SHP 0.830585
SLE 23.75528
SLL 22065.84631
SOS 601.88026
SRD 37.282669
STD 21780.126598
SVC 9.214882
SYP 2643.891613
SZL 19.091139
THB 36.458458
TJS 11.216013
TMT 3.682989
TND 3.324243
TOP 2.464553
TRY 36.27081
TTD 7.130433
TWD 34.270209
TZS 2791.031424
UAH 43.426878
UGX 3886.514989
USD 1.052283
UYU 45.021709
UZS 13526.469111
VES 48.861031
VND 26751.65603
VUV 124.929112
WST 2.937543
XAF 654.521833
XAG 0.033884
XAU 0.000395
XCD 2.843846
XDR 0.801343
XOF 654.521833
XPF 119.331742
YER 262.991742
ZAR 19.064031
ZMK 9471.810193
ZMW 29.146091
ZWL 338.834589
  • RBGPF

    59.6900

    59.69

    +100%

  • CMSC

    -0.0450

    24.52

    -0.18%

  • NGG

    -0.3100

    63.27

    -0.49%

  • SCS

    -0.0200

    13.07

    -0.15%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0800

    6.61

    -1.21%

  • CMSD

    -0.0836

    24.26

    -0.34%

  • RELX

    -0.1800

    45.11

    -0.4%

  • RIO

    -0.0400

    62.39

    -0.06%

  • GSK

    -0.1100

    33.35

    -0.33%

  • AZN

    -0.6000

    63.2

    -0.95%

  • BTI

    0.1500

    37.08

    +0.4%

  • JRI

    -0.0300

    13.23

    -0.23%

  • BCC

    -0.7700

    137.41

    -0.56%

  • BP

    -0.0100

    29.08

    -0.03%

  • BCE

    -0.3100

    27

    -1.15%

  • VOD

    0.0200

    8.94

    +0.22%

Egyptians exhume the dead as historic cemetery razed
Egyptians exhume the dead as historic cemetery razed / Photo: Haitham EL-TABEI - AFP

Egyptians exhume the dead as historic cemetery razed

Twenty years after burying him, Egyptian architect Ahmed el-Meligui was forced to exhume his grandfather's remains from a historic Cairo cemetery that is being partially razed to accommodate the growing mega-city.

Text size:

"Death itself is a tragedy. Here, you are reliving that tragedy all over again," said the 43-year-old, who had 23 relatives in total removed from their family tomb, located in a sprawling cemetery known as the City of the Dead in Old Cairo.

Since 2020, thousands of graves have been demolished at the UNESCO-listed World Heritage site, one of the oldest necropolises in the Muslim world.

It is the latest piece of Cairo's history to be torn apart as authorities aggressively remake parts of the city, a longtime cultural beacon of the Arab world.

The Egyptian government says the cemetery's destruction is necessary to build new roads and bridges that they hope will improve traffic in the congested, densely populated capital, home to around 22 million people.

But it is a painful ordeal for families like Meligui's, whose 105-year-old family tomb, built in traditional Islamic style with grand wooden doors and a spacious courtyard, is slated for demolition.

"I had to separate the bones of the men from the women," the father of three said, describing an Islamic burial custom.

"The most heartbreaking moment was when I found the shroud of my grandfather, who raised me, torn and tattered. The bones fell down and I had to gather them up from the ground," he said, holding a photo of his maternal grandparents and their four children taken more than 50 years ago.

Speaking from his luxury home in west Cairo, Meligui said he had the remains transported in a hearse to be reinterred at a new cemetery in Fayoum province, around 100 kilometres (60 miles) away.

- 'Indescribable pain' -

The Egyptian government has offered alternative burial sites outside Cairo to families, but these cemeteries are smaller and more remote, according to several people whose families have tombs there.

An official at Egypt's planning ministry told AFP the government "understands the grief of citizens" but said the process is ultimately for "the public interest".

A massive concrete bridge now cuts through the cemetery, connecting Cairo's eastern district of Mokattam with the central and western part of the capital -- cutting the previous hour-long commute in half.

"The whole area has changed dramatically," said Meligui, who owns a construction company.

Not far from his family's burial ground, the Khayalah cemetery was completely razed in April 2020 and replaced with a bustling new multi-lane highway.

Mokhtar, a 63-year-old jewellery maker who asked to use a pseudonym to speak freely, said he felt "indescribable pain" when exhuming his family members, including his sister, just five months after her burial.

"Imagine digging up your family's graves with your own hands and gathering their bones into bags," he said.

Mokhtar, who used to visit the cemetery monthly, arranged for new shrouds and a hearse to rebury his maternal family's remains in a government-provided lot.

"I moved my sister as she was, the body was completely intact with... blood," he said.

- 'Where should I go?' -

Mokhtar said the new fast road that cuts through his family's tomb is not worth the price.

"Easier or not. My loss cannot be replaced," he said.

The destruction of Cairo's cemeteries has taken a toll not only on the deceased and their families but also the thousands of people who have made the sacred grounds their home.

Since the 1980s, thousands of Egyptians have been living in cemeteries due to a severe housing crisis in the country of 107-million.

One such resident is Sayyed al-Arabi, 71, who has lived and guarded a cemetery in Old Cairo for decades.

His one-room home, where his three children were born, is now surrounded by piles of rubble from demolished tombs. Outside, a bulldozer levels the unpaved ground, puddled with water.

"They told us they would remove the bodies and demolish the cemetery," he said, a television hanging on the wall next to two dilapidated beds and a rusty fan.

In the spacious courtyard of the cemetery built in 1925, Arabi's granddaughters played under the watchful eyes of their mother as she washed clothes.

"The owners of the graves will receive a replacement, but what about me? Where should I go?"

G.Rehman--DT