In time, some moved into Cairo’s apartments, or
back to their rebuilt canal cities. But someone new is always
arriving in Cairo from some distant town or village, and more
people settled in the cemetery. Some eventually put a roof over
the compound, then a second story or even a third. Now, while
the dead are still buried here, it is mainly a city of the living.
Cairo and Egypt’s leaders were embarrassed by the impression
given of Egyptians forced to live in a graveyard and for a time
tried to relocate the inhabitants. But there was not enough
money to build new quarters for all these squatters, and the
authorities finally relented and began to treat the City of the
Dead like any other part of Cairo. Today, it has most of the ser-
vices found elsewhere in Cairo, including electricity, running
water, telephone lines, and mail.