Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Tamara Abdul Hadi‘s photography of the Bab il Nasr cemetery in Cairo, Egypt is seeing the (relative) habitability of what is literally a slum in a graveyard. The impromptu urban housing of the very poor tends to evoke images of crowded favelas, Calcutta in 1969 or even a US tent city, but many photos of Bab il Nasr look remarkably clean, quaint, and established.  Living conditions actually vary widely—plumbing and electricity exist in some homes, but these basic amenities are hardly ubiquitous.

Still, many residents have made remarkable comfort and safety from very little, likely owing to the both the duration of settlement and the fact that inhabitants are members of the larger community. From Hadi’s website:

The cemetery of Bab il Nasr in Cairo has been home to hundreds of families living among their deceased ancestors for the past 60 years. This sprawling cemetery is located in central Cairo, near the Imam Hussein Mosque. ‘This is a cemetery of the living’, says Mohammed Abdel Lateef. He lives with 9 other family members in their family’s section of the graveyard. Mohammed, in his thirties, and his siblings, Hussien, Ahmed and Ahlam, were born here.

‘This has been my home since 1966’ says Haj Abdel Lateef, Mohammed’s father, and the family’s patriarch. He and his wife Atiyat have raised 5 children here. They went to school’s nearby, work in the area, and now have children of their own.

It’s strange to see what appears to be a thriving multi-generational community in a graveyard, but the Lateef’s situation is hardly unheard of in Cairo. Between Bab el Nasr and four other cemeteries, over 500,000 Egyptians make up “The City of the Dead” slum.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Via Feature Shoot