Garbage City

Our final day together and Tom has arranged probably our most challenging day today, a visit to Garbage City with Ahmed and Zaki as our drivers. Garbage City is an area of Cairo at the foot of the Old Citadel. Here the families each have an area of Cairo where they collect all the rubbish from and bring it back to their city to be sorted and recycled. As we approach the city, the roads between the buildings get narrower and dirtier the deeper we go into the heart of the city. The people are going about their daily business, happy to help with directions and smiling as they sit on battered old chairs sorting through piles of rubbish.  I find myself breathing in to try and make the car smaller as the streets narrow and holding my breath every time Ahmed opens the window for directions because the smell is truly awful.

Summer Cave church

Rock carvings at The Cave church

View over Garbage City

The Auditorium

"Farming" in Garbage City

Eventually we reach the gates of the Coptic Cave churches we have come to see and here we have the most thorough search of the car that we have experienced all the time we’ve been in Cairo. This is probably in response to the bombing of Coptic Christian churches in Alexandria and norther Cairo 3 days ago. The road then opens out into a vast area and we can breathe again, there are huge rock carvings on the walls and verses of scripture all apparently the work of one man – Mario – or super Mario a polish artist. We are guided around the 20,000 seater summer church, 20,000 seater winter church, auditorium and small church by a very enthusiastic resident of Garbage City. His delivery of information is enthusiastic to say the least and is not helped by his butterfly selection of anecdotes and bible stories to tell the history of the place.

Finally he takes us up to a derelict area through a beautiful garden to show us yet more surprising art in this city, painting on the sides of building which when viewed from this spot make one whole picture. A truly amazing vision and viewpoint to see the roofline of Garbage City. There are pigs in one area, goats and chickens in another and tall tower like structures where the young boys of the city go to race pigeons. 

"El Seed's" street art 

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Horse & cart in Garbage City

Sorting the garbage

Maharaja's, City Square

The drive out is equally dirty and smelly but what an experience. The drivers drop us at gate 6 of Al Rehab so we can walk back to the apartment and see Al Rehab in the daylight. As there is yet more football on the TV tonight we decide to eat at the Indian restaurant, Maharaja, in City Square. It is a great way to end our time in Cairo, Rob is in heaven, good food and football on a giant screen overlooking a beautiful square with fountains