Egyptians exhume the dead as historic cemetery razed
Egypt’s government says the plan is necessary to build new housing as Cairo grapples with congestion and a growing population
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.
“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 long-time cultural beacon of the Arab world.
The Egyptian government says the cemetery’s destruction is necessary to build new roads and bridges, which it hopes will improve traffic in the capital's congested, densely populated area, 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.
