[1] East of Kobri Al Ebageah is the slum settlement of Manshiyet Nasr rising into the Mokattam hills. [1] The most important of the constructions in the Qarafa appears to have been a monumental palace complex called "al-Andalus", built in 977 by Durzan (or Taghrid), the mother of Caliph al-'Aziz. By the end of Abbasid rule in Egypt in the 10th century, the necropolis is reported to have covered an enormous area stretching several kilometers from the southern edge of al-Qata'i (close to the Mosque of Ibn Tulun and the later Citadel of Salah ad-Din) to the former lake of Birkat al-Habash (just south of the modern Ring Road today in the Basatin district). [8], These developments and practices during the Fatimid era led to the emergence, or resurgence, of the popular traditions of visiting the graves of family members and ancestors for holidays and vacations. He and his successors, as Khedives, strove to modernize Egypt and enacted many reforms. [1] A commonly cited estimate puts the current population at half a million or more people,[18][19] and some put it even as high as two million. The beginnings of Cairo's necropolis date back to the foundation and subsequent growth of the city of Fustat, founded in 642 CE by 'Amr ibn al-'As, the Arab Muslim commander who led the conquest of Egypt. [1] North of this, the cemeteries around the Sayyida Nafisa Mosque are separated from the rest of the necropolis by the modern Salah Salem ring road, and form the neighbourhood of al-Khalifa which blends into the main urban fabric of Cairo at this point. It is a vast area of tombs stretching from the foot of the Cairo Citadel in the north to the densely-inhabited modern district of al-Basatin to the south. The cemetery's original site was probably just east of Fustat (near the Mausoleum of Imam al-Shafi'i), and expanded from there, with the focus of development shifting to different areas in different periods. [1] These did not supplant the Great Palaces (located on the site of Bayn al-Qasrayn today), but served as leisurely retreats from the city and as places to stay while visiting the tombs of Muhammad's descendants. The French, citing hygiene reasons, banned all burials inside the city, and cemeteries within the city walls were eventually destroyed and the remains of their occupants moved, leaving only the Qarafa (which was outside the city walls) as Cairo's major burial ground. [1][7] Most of the region, however, turned into an extension of Cairo's necropolis, and is now densely filled with tombs. The coffins and artefacts were all found down newly discovered burial shafts that haven't been opened for 2,500 years. Moreover, rural migration towards the cities began to rise significantly (and would only increase over the 20th century). Letters to the Dead date from the Old Kingdom (c. 2613 - 2181 BCE) through the Late Period of Ancient Egypt (525-332 BCE), essentially the entirety of Egyptian history. [6] Importantly, that area also became the site of many important tombs belonging to a number of the Prophet's descendants who emigrated to Egypt in this period, some of which, like those of Sayyida Ruqayya, Sayyida Nafisa and Sayyida Aisha, are still present today. Unlike the Great Pyramids of Giza, the ones you see here are smaller but older than the former. There are several historically and architecturally important tombs along Shari'a al-Khalifa here, including the Fatimid-era Mashhad of Sayyida Ruqayya (daughter of 'Ali) and the 13th-century Tomb of Shagarat al-Durr (the only female ruler of Egypt in the Islamic era, who played a crucial role during the transition from Ayyubid to Mamluk rule). Archaeologist team leader Dr. Ramadan Hussein said: "The tomb contains mummies of both rich and poor people, as well as evidence of the … It also set a precedent for people living in the cemeteries, as the new establishments inside the Qarafa required workers to operate, and the religious foundations attracted scholars and Sufis. She died in 762 CE in Egypt. Their organs were removed, and their bodies wrapped in linens. Egypt teases biggest discovery of the year from ancient ‘City of the Dead’ Archaeologists excavating a site claim they’ve found something “very exciting” in an underground shaft labelled the “City of the Dead”. [16] Nonetheless, as mentioned above these districts also cover dense urban areas outside the necropolis, meaning that the number of people living inside the cemeteries themselves is likely much lower. Today, the cemeteries are also crossed and split by rail lines and major roads such as the ring-roads of Shari'a Salah Salem and Kobri Al Ebageah, thus creating prominent barriers between parts of the necropolis that were once contiguous with each other. One impetus for this was the presence of the tombs of a number of descendants of Muhammad and of 'Ali buried here earlier. Shantytowns are mostly gone, but only a portion of tomb residents have good access to regular amenities. [1][7] In 1320, Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad put an end to the games and the military functions of the area were abandoned, but it came to be inhabited by Sufi orders searching for space outside the crowded city. [1][8] Along with their palaces, the Fatimids also built mosques, madrassas, and ribats for religious instruction and activities, all of which required the creation of infrastructure for water and other necessities. Some areas of dense urban housing have developed at several sites within the boundaries of the historic necropolis, forming their own city neighborhoods. More than two millennia ago, 27 Egyptians were laid to rest in Saqqara, an ancient city of the dead. At the bottom of the municipal burial shaft of the Mummification Workshop (30 m deep), which was discovered in 2018. [1], The necropolis that makes up "the City of the Dead" has been developed over many centuries and contains both the graves of Cairo's common population as well as the elaborate mausoleums of many of its historical rulers and elites. Many historians believe that the scale and nature of the constructions point to deliberate efforts at urbanizing the area, rather than simply using it as another necropolis. Huge find in Egypt’s ‘City of the Dead’. Saqqara is located near the entrance of the Nile Delta, at the point where the river starts dividing into several arms, on the west bank of the Nile. necropolis. In this early period, monumental mausoleums were quite rare, graves were unadorned, and only the most important tombs might have had some distinguishing structure at all, as early Islam discouraged ostentatious tombs. However, here they were able to build much larger complexes spread over a wider area. She was an immigrant to Fustat and acquired a strong reputation for baraka before her death in 824 CE, and her tomb is still highly important and popular today. On Saturday, a team of archaeologists unveiled an unprecedented finding from an ancient city of the dead in Saqqara, Egypt. The Northern Cemetery (also called the Eastern Cemetery, or Qarafat ash-sharq in Arabic, because it was east of the city walls) is relatively younger than the main Qarafa to the south and dates back to the Mamluk period. [1] In turn, the Mamluks began to build their mausoleums here, also looking for more space. Set in a remote area of the vast Sahara, Hamunaptra held such high importance that none but the Medjai and the High Priest of Osiris could ever know its location. [16], The Bab-al Nasr cemetery is much smaller in size than the other necropolises and lies directly north of the historic city walls, sandwiched between the al-Husayniya neighborhood (historically a northern suburb of Cairo) and what is now the northern part of the al-Darrasa neighborhood (which separates it from the Northern Cemetery). [1], The population of the cemeteries declined throughout the Ottoman period, but the necropolises nonetheless remained an important part of Cairo, with many foreign visitors during this period commenting on their size and monumental quality. Ancient Egypt was a multicultural society that received immigrants from different parts of the ancient world, including Greeks, Libyans, and Phoenicians among others. [1][21] This may be exaggerated to some extent, as there is no clear evidence that poverty or crime are greater problems overall here than in other working-class districts of Cairo – although drug-trafficking was indeed documented at one point. [1], The Fatimid dynasty revived or reintroduced ancient Egyptian traditions of building monumental mausoleums and of visiting ancestors' graves, which subsequently changed the character of the cemeteries. [1][3] This phenomenon led to much media commentary and popular imagination about the condition of those living in the necropolises, linking them symbolically to Cairo's much-discussed overpopulation problems and sometimes leading to exaggerated estimates of the number of people squatting in the mausoleums. The cemetery continued to be used well into the, To the west of this cemetery, a gallery of tombs for the sacred bulls of Apis, and known today by its Greek name Serapeum,  was constructed from the, The north cemetery consists mainly of late 5th Dynasty tombs, with the tombs of two of Unas' queens. The areas around the unfinished pyramid of Sekhemkhet and the so-called Great Enclosure have not yet been fully explored. [1] Badr al-Gamali is responsible for the construction of the nearby city walls (including the gate of Bab al-Nasr), and his decision to be interred here may have marked the beginning of the cemetery, whose fortunes subsequently rose and fell along with those of the surrounding neighborhoods. This desert area located between the Citadel, the city walls, and the Moqattam hills was crossed by the important pilgrimage road which led to Mecca. It contains the tomb of 'Aisha, the daughter of Ja'far al-Sadiq, the sixth Shi'i Imam and a descendant of Muhammad. [1] (The construction of the Salah Salem highway, however, also implicated the destruction of some of the cemeteries along the edge of the Northern Cemetery. The tradition of building domed mausoleums only evolved from the Fatimid period onward. Storia della necropoli musulmana del Cairo. In the motion picture “the city of the dead” could only be located on specific times. It lies in the middle of a mountain valley which stretches over 17 kilometers (10. Against this view, however, it must be noted that when the first pyramids were built at Dashur, in the beginning of the, Saqqara North stretches between the Archaic Tombs just south of Abusir, and the unfinished complex of, This cemetery was an extension to the west of the Archaic Tombs that were built on the edge of the Saqqara plateau during the 1st Dynasty. The main road leading past it, Shari'a al-Khalifa, is historically the southern continuation of the qasaba avenue (which at its northern end is known as al-Mu'izz street) and was the main north–south road of Cairo for centuries, starting at Bab al-Futuh and leading all the way into the Qarafa. At its center, the area around the mosque of Qaitbay and north of it is an urbanized neighborhood with multistory apartment blocs. The name is a toponym derived from the Banu Qarafa ibn Ghusn ibn Wali clan, a Yemeni clan descended from the Banu Ma'afir tribe, which once had a plot of land in the city of Fustat (the predecessor of Cairo). [1], Under the long reign of Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad (1293-1341), Cairo's prosperity led to increased use of the Qarafa necropolis and to its revitalization, with the "Smaller Qarafa" of Ayyubid times (around the Mausoleum of Imam al-Shafi'i) now re-merging with the "Greater Qarafa". City of the Dead in Cairo, Egypt. To the south, Saqqara borders on Dashur, which some Egyptologists consider only to have been an extension of Saqqara. [1], The Mamluk sultans (1250 to 1517) were prolific builders, but most of the sultans and Mamluk elites preferred to be buried in monumental mausoleums attached to mosques and madrassas built in the city rather than in the Qarafa. [1] Even of those living among the actual tombs, at least half of them in the 1980s (when the tomb-dwelling population appears to have peaked) were workers, along with their families, whose livelihoods were directly linked to the tombs themselves, such as morticians, gravediggers, masons, and private tomb guardians. [5]:190, Under Ottoman rule (1517–1798), Egypt became a province of a vast empire with Istanbul as its capital. Share on Twitter. The area where the Mausoleum of Imam al-Shafi'icurrently stands … When a tomb was constructed, depending upon one's wealth and status, an offerings chapel was also built so that the soul could receive food and drink offerings on a daily basis. [1][6] Further south, Imam al-Shafi'i, a Sunni religious scholar of major importance and founder of the Shafi'i madhhab, was buried in the middle of the cemetery in the early 9th century on the site of the early Quraysh cemetery. A three hour drive through dangerous and winding roads, the site sits on the slope of a hill overlooking the Fiagdon River. To the south, Saqqara borders on Dashur, which some Egyptologists consider only to have been an extension of Saqqara. [16], The southern tip of the Northern Cemetery zone is also referred to as the Bab al-Wazir Cemetery, named after the former Bab al-Wazir city gate nearby. [3][1] In fact, the majority of the residents live in regular urban housing and neighborhoods which, through various historical circumstances, developed inside the cemetery zones. [3] These squatters were still a very small fraction of the total population of the cemetery zones: around 3% of nearly 180,000 people at that time. [1] Only a relatively modest number of Mamluk funerary monuments were built here, although they were of high architectural quality and some remain today. The province was highly important to the empire for its agricultural and financial support, and governors were often appointed from the highest circles of the Sultan's regime. It was used and extended during the, , with most of the oldest mastabas closest to the Archaic Tombs. It is divided into two parts by the Citadel of Cairo: the "Southern" Cemetery and "Northern" Cemetery, referring to the regions south and north of the Citadel. [7], Directly south of the mosque, across the Salah Salem road, is the neighborhood of al-Qadiriya, centered around the street by that name. [1] Nonetheless, in the early 16th century, Leo Africanus describes the old Qarafa (the Southern Cemetery), as being inhabited by around two thousand households. [1][7], By the end of the Mamluk period in the 16th century, the decline of Cairo's population and wealth also led to the decline of the necropolis zones overall, particularly the old southern Qarafa. [1] The inhabitants of the cemeteries are socially heterogeneous and live in different communities across the area, which has probably inhibited them from forming a united front in dealing with the authorities.[1]. The first was Djedkare of the 5th Dynasty, whose attention may have been drawn by the high plateau that dominates this part of the area. The site is just outside the village of Lisht, Egypt. Mountain looming over Dargavs: The City of the Dead ( Wikimedia Commons ) The first mention o… Many of the coffins are said to still contain the bodies of the people who were buried inside. It started with the early city of Fustat (founded in 642 CE) and arguably reached its apogee, in terms of prestige and monumentality, during the Mamluk era (13th-15th centuries). Also notable are the large funerary complexes of Amir Qurqumas and Sultan Inal further north, along with other smaller but prominent mausoleums topped by the stone domes which became distinctive of Mamluk architecture. [1] Some historians believe that the necropolis zone was divided into two cemeteries: the Qarafat al-Sughra, or "Smaller Qarafa", located further north, and the Qarafat al-Kubra, or "Greater Qarafa", spreading over a large area further south. The UNESCO World Heritage Site entry for Historic Cairo refers to this area as the "Qaytbay Necropolis", given the fame of Qaytbay's mausoleum. A part of the Mamluk Aqueduct which once provided water to the Citadel runs through the northern areas of the cemetery, partly along the path of the old Ayyubid city walls and running parallel to Salah Salem road. Its first tombs, dated to the beginning of the 1st Dynasty, were built on the ridge of the desert plateau, probably immediately to the west of the new capital of Memphis. (courtesy Khalil Hamra / AP) When one mentions Egypt’s city of the dead, first things that come to mind are mummies, temples and tombs … They are architecturally impressive but have been partly destroyed over the years. [12]) By 1947, the census had calculated the population of the districts including the cemeteries at 69,367, with population density having increased by a large factor. It is believed by some that the oldest remains of Memphis are to be found underneath the modern-day village of Abusir, immediately to the east of the Archaic Tombs. The City of the Dead consists of a long belt of cemeteries and mausoleums stretching for roughly 4 miles along the eastern edge of the historic city. The district, as a whole, has an estimated population of around 108,000 in 2019; however, the district also covers other dense urban areas outside the Qarafa cemeteries. On a clear day, its most prominent monument, Netjerikhets Step Pyramid, can be seen from Giza, which lies some 17 kilometres to the North, and from Dashur, about 10 kilometres to the South. [1] The funerary complex of Sultan Qaytbay, for example, considered a masterpiece of Mamluk architecture, is often described as a "royal suburb", since it included a host of services and establishments to serve both short-term stays and long-term residents. 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