Cairo’s City of the Dead

Cairo’s City of the Dead

Located in the old quarter of Cairo, also known as the Cairo Cemetery, Cairo’s City of the Dead is the world’s most unusual and astonishing cemetery. It truly lives up to its name as a city of the dead — desolate and lifeless. What makes it the world’s most peculiar cemetery is that not only the dead reside here, but the living as well.

Due to Islamic traditions of burying the deceased in the ground, vast cemeteries have been established here, which remain untouched and undisturbed to this day. Originally uninhabited, the area became home to many families due to Cairo’s severe housing shortage, forcing them to live among the tombs. According to local customs, rooms were built beside the graves for relatives to mourn, but now these spaces are fully occupied by residents, with tombstones even repurposed as tables. The densely packed “haunted houses” are fully inhabited, forming an urban village complete with running water, electricity, gas, mosques, post offices, and even police stations. This stable residential community is said to be home to around one million people.

Amid the narrow gaps of the tombs, chickens cluck, dogs bark, and children play, creating a lively scene. Whether it’s the living benefiting from the presence of the dead or the dead spared from loneliness, the coexistence of the two worlds brings harmony and contentment. People don’t see this place as a grim graveyard, but rather as a earthly paradise where life begins.

City of the Dead (Cairo)

Must-visit reason: The world’s most unusual tomb

Continent: Africa

Country/Region: Egypt

Province/State: Cairo Governorate

City: Cairo