The City of the Dead, or Cairo Necropolis (Qarafa, el-Arafa), is an Islamic necropolis and cemetery below the Mokattam Hills in southeastern Cairo, Egypt. The people of Cairo, the Cairenes, and most Egyptians, call it el'arafa (trans. 'the cemetery'). It is a 4 miles (6.4 km) long (north-south) dense grid of tomb and mausoleum structures, where some people live and work amongst the dead. Some reside here to be near ancestors, of recent to ancient lineage. Some live here after being forced from central Cairo due to urban renewal demolitions and urbanization pressures, that increased from the Gamal Abdel Nasser era in the 1950s and forward. Other residents immigrated in from the agricultural countryside, looking for work ? an example of rural to urban migration in an LEDC (least economically developed country). The poorest live in the City of the Dead slum, and Manshiyat Naser, which is also known as Garbage City, a center of recycling and reuse Zabbaleen vendors.
