It’s the oldest continuously used Muslim cemetery in the world, and its history traces back to the seventh century. The City of the Dead has always been a city of the living as well. My visits, and the small acts of tending to the dead, helped me make meaning out of a meaningless loss. The City of the Dead does not just house my own personal memories; it is one of the last remaining open repositories of Egypt’s historical memory. Now the dead are being exhumed, the living are being evicted, and the historic buildings that house them both are being bulldozed.

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Persons: grievers, Cairenes, I’ve, Abdel Fattah el Locations: Cairo, al, City, Egypt