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© 2021 Rena Effendi
On the eve of elections large scale portraits of Sisi adorned the streets of crowded neighborhoods in Cairo. Mimicking former Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat, Sisi favors a mega project of building a new capital in the desert. Since the 70s, Egyptian leaders embarked on construction projects in the desert urging people to move. However, less than a million people have relocated to the satellite cities with a total planned population of twenty million.
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© 2021 Rena Effendi
View of the City of the Dead, Mamluk era mosques and tombs intermeshed with the informal red-brick building blocks.
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© 2021 Rena Effendi
Street scene in Batn El-Baqqara, an informal neighborhood of Cairo.
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© 2021 Rena Effendi
Funeral in City of the Dead, a Mameluk-era neighborhood where much informal construction is taking place in Cairo.
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© 2021 Rena Effendi
Fruit and vegetables for sale in sparsely populated Six of October city. Located 32 km south of Cairo, Six of October city was founded by Anwar Sadat in 1979 to accommodate the population’s demand for new housing, Named after Egypt’s military victory and 400,000 km in size, Six of October city is home to only 500,000 residents.
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© 2021 Rena Effendi
Mother peeling garlic and father playing with kids in their home courtyard that houses six graves in the City of the Dead of Cairo.
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© 2021 Rena Effendi
Densly built informal construction taking over farm lands in Giza, off the ring road between Mariotia and Saft El Laban corridor in Giza.
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© 2021 Rena Effendi
Sisters at their tomb home in the City of the Dead in Cairo.
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© 2021 Rena Effendi
View over the crowded streets and unregulated traffick of Al Sayeda Aesha in Cairo.
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© 2021 Rena Effendi
Three sisters at home by the tomb door in the City of the Dead.
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© 2021 Rena Effendi
Informal construction in front of City of the Dead leading towards the Citadel in Cairo.
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© 2021 Rena Effendi
Children running in the informal neighborhood of Batn El-Baqqara in Cairo.
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© 2021 Rena Effendi
Horse cart vendor selling cucumbers in front of informal building blocks in Ezbet El-Khairallah in Cairo.
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© 2021 Rena Effendi
Man dancing on the street in the informal neighborhood of Batn El-Baqqara in Cairo.
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© 2021 Rena Effendi
View over the informal settlements of red-brick construction off Saft El Laban corridor in Giza. Sheep, goats and chickens are kept on the rooftops of these unfinished homes in Cairo.
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© 2021 Rena Effendi
Mother feeding her baby in Abu El Karn, an overpopulated neighborhood of Cairo.
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© 2021 Rena Effendi
Man in a street cafe in the City of the Dead.
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© 2021 Rena Effendi
Street vendor selling oranges in Darb Al Ahmar, an overpopulated neighborhood of Cairo.
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© 2021 Rena Effendi
Seyid, the trash collector picks up garbage during early morning hours in Zamalek, one of very few upscale residential neighborhoods of Cairo where sanitation services are available.
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© 2021 Rena Effendi
A scrap yard for discarded cars along the desert road in the outskirts of Cairo.
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© 2021 Rena Effendi
A street market in the alley of Imbaba, the largest informal neighborhood of Cairo.
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© 2021 Rena Effendi
Population density still remains low in Six of October city built in the 70s on the outskirts of Cairo with aims to decongest the central neighborhoods.
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© 2021 Rena Effendi
General repairs shop in the City of the Dead in Cairo.
Public Story
Cairo: Urban Decay
Credits:
rena effendi
Date of Work:
04/01/07 - 03/16/14
Updated: 04/20/18
In 2015, just a year after winning the election, Egypt’s president Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi announced his plan to build a new capital. The new city will be located in the desert, 45 km east of Cairo and is planned to accommodate 5 million inhabitants. The capital’s slick website boasts 10,000 km of boulevards and promenades, but both Emirati and Chinese stakeholders pulled out of the deal this year over high costs. The new glitzy metropolis so far remains to be Sisi’s personal megalomaniac fantasy, unrealistic in Egypt’s staggering economy. Ever since the coup and the ouster of Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi, Sisi’s military regime has crushed political dissent crowding the city’s jails with its opponents, activists and journalists. Yet Sisi positions himself as a leader who saved Egypt from chaos and political uncertainty, promoting costly mega-projects as his vision to create jobs and boost the economy. Many urban planners question the regime’s logic of spending close to USD 50 billion on a ‘dream city’ and uprooting people into the desert, while Cairo is imploding in a quagmire of social and urban infrastructure problems that will remain neglected.
Egypt’s population growth has spiked in the last decade, while the past few years of political instability have contributed to significant economic downfall. One of the largest metropolises in the world, the 20 million people city struggles to manage its population pressures. Food riots frequently erupt and public transportation services are inadequate, while the demand for new housing grows exponentially. Informal neighborhoods are widespread in the absence of proper law enforcement. Chaotic unregulated construction not only took over green spaces and farm land, but also threatened the city’s cultural heritage affecting historic neighborhoods. Ubiquitous red brick homes, hastily built without any regard for urban planning are often left unfinished to avoid taxation. Metal wires poke from the rooftops of shoddy structures that often stand so close to one another that no space is allowed for vehicles to drive into the alleys of the “ashwayat” - densely populated informal neighborhoods, where more than half of Cairo’s population lives.