Living In Cairo’s City Of The Dead

by Sean McLachlan on


Life can be hard in the developing world, as is shown in this video of a poor neighborhood in Cairo done by IRIN Films. The film doesn’t show your typical slum. This is the City of the Dead, a vast necropolis where poor people have moved in and set up homes and shops inside the tombs.

The capital of Egypt is a sprawling metropolis of some 12.5 million people. Actually, nobody is really sure how many people there are. Cairo has been a huge city for many centuries, and so its necropolis is also huge, some four miles long and filled with tightly packed tombs and mausoleums. The dead have been buried here since the 7th century A.D. Most tombs are simple buildings with little inside except a basic stone marker. Thus poor people can move in, put a lock on the door, and have a ready-made home.

Like with Cairo, nobody knows exactly how many people live in the City of the Dead. Some say half a million; some say ten times that number. They scrape out a living working odd jobs in the city or taking care of tombs for more wealthy Egyptians. A lucky few have saved enough money to set up small businesses serving the needs of their neighbors. A whole city of life has sprung up among the bones of the dead.

%Gallery-159771%Many locals say they like the neighborhood. There’s a chronic housing shortage in Cairo and people here can have a much bigger place than they could ever afford in more traditional neighborhoods. Also, they say people here are friendlier. Perhaps the proximity of death makes folks more aware of their behavior, or perhaps they feel they’re all in the same boat and are thus kinder to their neighbors.

There are downsides too. Living in the tombs is illegal, although the government hasn’t done anything about it, and infrastructure is minimal. Still, the people of the City of the Dead have created their own community where most people wouldn’t even consider living.

Several companies in Cairo offer tours of the City of the Dead. This allows the locals to make some money off the curious who come to see life in the tombs.

Check out the gallery for more images of this strange neighborhood.

Archaeologists search for missing medieval king

by Sean McLachlan on

Archaeologists love a good mystery, and some researchers in Sweden have themselves a big one.

Earlier this year a research team opened what they believed to be the tomb of King Magnus Ladulås, who ruled Sweden from 1275-90. Magnus was a popular king with the commoners and earned the nickname “Ladulås”, which means “lock the barn”, for his law giving peasants the right to refuse free food and lodging to traveling aristocracy and clergy.

When the team opened the tomb in Riddarholmen church in Stockholm, they found the remains of nine individuals. The bodies were subjected to carbon 14 dating and the archaeologists discovered they died sometime between 1430 and 1520.

The researchers already knew the tomb was later, built by King Johan III in 1573, and now it appears that Johan chose the wrong spot. Riddarholmen Church is the traditional burial spot for Swedish royalty. One would think they’d be more careful about marking the tombs.

So where is the missing king? The team is applying for permission to dig in another tomb at the same church, which also (supposedly) contains the remains of King Karl Knutsson. Perhaps they’ll find both kings. Or perhaps they’ll find another mystery.

Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Apostle Philip’s tomb found in Turkey? Maybe not

by Sean McLachlan on

The news wires are humming with yet another spectacular archaeological discovery, this time of the tomb of the Apostle Philip.

St. Philip was one of Christ’s twelve apostles and is said to have been martyred and buried in Hierapolis, now Pamukkale in southwestern Turkey. The city was an ancient spa town owing to the local hot springs and also a center for pagan temples. St. Philip is said to have come here to preach Christianity.

Italian archaeologist Francesco D’Andria and his team believe they have discovered his tomb. The description of the tomb and the writings they found on it all match up to it being St. Philip’s burial place, they say.

But this might be more media frenzy and wishful thinking than a real discovery, along the lines of the recent “discoveries” of Caligula’s tomb and the Crucifixion nails. First off, the Catholic Encyclopedia casts doubt on whether Philip the Apostle was buried in Hierapolis at all. The Catholic Church doesn’t recognize the tradition of his being martyred in Hierapolis because it comes from the Acts of Philip, a source written centuries after Philip’s death. Also, the tomb hasn’t been opened, making it hard to say anything definitive. None of the news reports I read go into detail about what inscriptions the archaeologists found.

I’m not questioning the archaeologists’ techniques or credibility, merely complaining about bad reporting. Perhaps D’Andria did talk to reporters about the inscriptions he found, but none of them covered that. Indeed, all of them state as fact that Philip the Apostle was buried in Hierapolis, and many state as fact that this is Philip’s tomb. As happens so often with news stories about archaeology, reporters leap to attractive conclusions without checking their facts.

Hopefully D’Andria and his team really did find Philip the Apostle’s tomb. This will add yet another reason to visit Hierapolis, which is already a UNESCO World Heritage Site. From the quickie news reports, though, it’s hard to say for sure.

[Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons]

Woodlawn Cemetery named National Historic Landmark

by Sean McLachlan on


New Yorkers have always known that Woodlawn Cemetery was someplace special. This Bronx burial ground is the final home for many of the rich and famous. It’s beautiful too, a parklike setting with 400 acres of ornate headstones and mausoleums, such as this one for Frank Winfield Woolworth. Yes, that Woolworth.

Founded in 1863 in an age when wealthy families vied with each other to have the most elaborate mausoleum, it attracts thousands of visitors a year who don’t even know anyone buried there. The public certainly knows of many of them: Harry Carey, David Farragut, Duke Ellington, Fiorello La Guardia, Frank Belknap Long, Herman Melville, Bat Masterson, and Joseph Pulitzer to name a few.

Now the cemetery has been named a national Historic Landmark, the highest honor that can be given to a U.S. historic site. Visiting Woodlawn makes a soothing and contemplative break from the high-powered vibe of New York City. If you like cemetery art, check out our picks of creepy and beautiful cemeteries around the world.

[Image courtesy Woodlawn Cemetery]

Creepy and beautiful cemeteries around the world

by Sean McLachlan on


Cemeteries aren’t the first places most people go to while on vacation, but they can tell a lot about a culture and its history. We all have to die sometime and the way we deal with the dead says a lot about ourselves.

Some cemeteries are overgrown and covered in moss. Others are orderly and well-kept. Some are beautiful, and can inspire wonderful photographs like the one taken here by user Perrimoon over at Flickr. Sometimes graveyards can be downright dangerous, like the cemetery in Haworth, England, famous as the hometown of the Brontë sisters. The dead were literally stacked ten deep in this graveyard and the stream that provided the town’s water flowed right through them!

Some of the best free sights in Paris are cemeteries. The same goes for New York. My pick for the best place to see cemeteries is Rome, the city of the dead, which has splendid Renaissance tombs, ancient Roman gravestones, and mummified monks.

Do you have some good cemetery shots? Join us over at Gadling’s flickr pool and show us your art. You might just get picked for Photo of the Day!

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