Garbage City Photography - M1key - Michal Huniewicz

Garbage City by Michal Huniewicz

In any Cairo tourist location, you are bound to clash with touts and the like. It can get seriously annoying real fast.

Luckily, the city has some less popular but nevertheless interesting places to visit too. One of them is Manshiyat Naser or the Garbage City.

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
Uploaded on: 2018-04-15.

Garbage City, Cairo, Egypt

Garbage City

Garbage City
The Garbage City owes its name to the fact that this is where a great part of city's waste ends up. That is because Cairo does not have a proper waste management system.
ISO 100, 36mm, f/4.5, 1/125s.

Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ
The area is inhabited by Coptic Christians.
ISO 220, 24mm, f/3.2, 1/50s.

Wheelbarrow

Wheelbarrow
To most of us, the place is a slum, but I found the inhabitants to be perhaps proud of what they were achieving, and they were welcoming, and wanted to show me the best parts of Manshiyat Naser.
ISO 100, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/250s.

Inside

Inside
Manshiyat Naser thrives on what other parts of the city dispose of. Here, rubbish is recycled and re-sold after having been collected.
ISO 220, 38mm, f/2.8, 1/50s.

Fat Rat

Fat Rat
Rats are omnipresent. I soon met a young man who'd show me around, and I got an inkling he didn't want me to photograph these aspects of the Garbage City.
Rats must be careful, or else...
ISO 100, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/200s.

Flat Rat

Flat Rat
Splat!
ISO 100, 70mm, f/2.8, 1/200s.

Kids

Kids
But even in places like this, kids will find a way to have fun.
ISO 1100, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/50s.

One Dog, Two Cats, a Million Flies

One Dog, Two Cats, a Million Flies
Garbage City smells just like what you'd expect. Rotten food stench permeates the air. There are billions, trillions of flies. Stray animals feast on edible garbage.
ISO 100, 52mm, f/2.8, 1/500s.

Flying Temple

Flying Temple
I've never seen those before - some sort of Christian shrines floating between the buildings.
ISO 100, 36mm, f/2.8, 1/1000s.

Pressed

Pressed
Bottles end up squashed. They can then be turned into strips of industrial binding.
ISO 100, 35mm, f/2.8, 1/160s.

On a Plate

On a Plate
Initially, I though this was a plate of food, but it turned out to be more rubbish.
ISO 100, 70mm, f/2.8, 1/500s.

Koka

Koka
Working hard!
ISO 100, 31mm, f/2.8, 1/200s.

Church Door

Church Door
I wanted to visit local churches. If you travel to the Middle East occasionally, you are probably used to feeling like a potential hostage and a valuable resource for terrorists. In the Garbage City, people thought I was the terrorist!
ISO 2200, 38mm, f/2.8, 1/50s.

Church

Church
They did not want to let me into churches because they had received threats from the Muslim Brotherhood, and were generally suspicious of strangers. I managed to convince them to let me into one of the churches, briefly. It was underwhelming and rather bare.
ISO 1800, 34mm, f/2.8, 1/50s.

Chickens

Chickens
As in anywhere else in Cairo, there are shops and stalls.
ISO 100, 14mm, f/1.8, 1/250s.

Boy

Boy
Boy
There was a language barrier, as they did not speak English, and I don't speak Arabic. I was told the place was unsafe, and was supposed to go there with a journalist, but he stood me up, so I ended up going alone.
ISO 100, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/160s.

Alley

Alley
Apparently, families will specialise here in different kinds of rubbish they know how to make the most out of. [1]
ISO 100, 32mm, f/4.5, 1/100s.

Kids Chasing Car

Kids Chasing Car
Here's Datsun with a load of rubbish.
ISO 100, 70mm, f/3.2, 1/250s.

Union Jack

Union Jack
I even found a tuk tuk like those you'd see in India.
ISO 140, 38mm, f/2.8, 1/50s.

Man with a Broomstick

Man with a Broomstick
Man sweeping the floor.
ISO 100, 24mm, f/3.2, 1/125s.

Old Woman Clad In Black

Old Woman Clad In Black
Irresistibly photogenic lady, who somewhat grudgingly agreed to be photographed.
ISO 100, 52mm, f/2.8, 1/100s.

Lorry

Lorry
The Zabbaleen (Garbage People) have been at it for over 70 years now! [2]
ISO 100, 52mm, f/2.8, 1/200s.

Children

Children
They collect rubbish from the 20 million Cairo inhabitants for a small fee, and bring it here. While it's usually the men who collect it, it's women and children who sort it.
ISO 100, 70mm, f/2.8, 1/200s.

Mary

Mary
Allegedly, as much as 90% of rubbish is recycled (while in the West it's about 20-25%). [2]
ISO 100, 70mm, f/2.8, 1/160s.

Pig in Cairo

Pig in Cairo
In 2009, fearing an outbreak of the swine flu, the inhabitants were ordered to cull all of their 350,000 pigs. They have since returned, and have an important role to play, as they clear the rubbish of organic waste, and their meat is later sold to restaurants catering for tourists.
ISO 100, 70mm, f/2.8, 1/800s.

Fly Emirates

Fly Emirates
There was a film made about these people, and it's entitled Garbage Dreams.
ISO 100, 14mm, f/2.2, 1/160s.

Holding Hands

Holding Hands
You don't want to use the term Zabbaleen when you visit - it's now considered derogatory. [3]
ISO 100, 70mm, f/2.8, 1/800s.

Stand

Stand
I met one person who could speak English. Despite having a Masters degree, he was stuck here sorting rubbish with everyone else. He did not wish to be photographed.
ISO 250, 14mm, f/4.0, 1/50s.

In the Shade

In the Shade
Although the place is a slum by Western standards, a square metre here costs as much as £900 ($1282)! [3] That might be because there is international interest in materials recycled here.
ISO 100, 31mm, f/2.8, 1/1000s.

Café

Café
My local guide and I stopped here, and he bought me a coffee.
ISO 100, 14mm, f/1.8, 1/100s.

Owner

Owner
This man was the owner of the café.
ISO 220, 14mm, f/1.8, 1/50s.

Fruit Stand

Fruit Stand
There are supposedly 262,000 inhabitants, and the area cover 5.54 square kilometres at the base of Mokattam Hills (which literally means "broken off" [5]). [4] It's those hills where ancient Egyptians got limestone to build pyramids and temples.
ISO 100, 14mm, f/4.0, 1/80s.

Shouting Man

Shouting Man
The inhabitants decorate their balconies in otherwise uniform blocks perhaps to express their identity.
ISO 100, 14mm, f/2.2, 1/80s.

Incense

Incense
Child with incense. I bought a giant incense stick here.
ISO 140, 14mm, f/2.5, 1/50s.

Cheese

Cheese
Some sort of cheese I did not dare to touch.
ISO 100, 14mm, f/4.0, 1/80s.

Gold

Gold
Not all inhabitants are Christians. Some Muslims have moved here as well.
ISO 100, 14mm, f/1.8, 1/200s.

The Jury's Out

The Jury's Out
There were protests here a few years ago, after a church was burnt down. The army sent tanks to deal with it. [6]
ISO 100, 14mm, f/4.0, 1/400s.

Blocks

Blocks
The time had come for me to leave the Garbage City.
ISO 100, 14mm, f/4.0, 1/800s.

Complex of Sultan al-Ashraf Qaytbay

Complex of Sultan al-Ashraf Qaytbay
I walked to the City of the Dead and my favourite mosque. It was my birthday!
ISO 100, 14mm, f/4.5, 1/250s.

Entrance

Entrance
Last time I was here, I essentially got kicked out. This time, a bit of baksheesh made things smoother.
ISO 125, 14mm, f/1.8, 1/50s.

Sultan al-Ashraf Qaytbay Funerary Hall

Sultan al-Ashraf Qaytbay Funerary Hall
They even opened the funerary hall for me.
ISO 1100, 14mm, f/1.8, 1/50s.

Sultan al-Ashraf Qaytbay Mosque

Sultan al-Ashraf Qaytbay Mosque
And this is the mosque itself.
ISO 1000, 14mm, f/1.8, 1/50s.

Emir Qurqumas Complex

Emir Qurqumas Complex
This is one of the largest mausoleums in all of Cairo, completed in 1456. [7] It includes a madrasa, a sabil, and a Khanqah - monastery for Sufi Dervishes.
ISO 100, 35mm, f/2.8, 1/2500s.

Minarets

Minarets
Qurqumas himself was the commander-in-chief of the Mamluk armies.
ISO 100, 66mm, f/2.8, 1/2000s.

Minaret Ladder

Minaret Ladder
This is the ladder entrance to the very top of a minaret.
ISO 100, 26mm, f/2.8, 1/160s.

Tomb of Princess Ruqayya Abd Al-Halim

Tomb of Princess Ruqayya Abd Al-Halim
This is the tomb of Princess Shawikar and Princess Ruqayya Abd Al-Halim - who only died in 1947 and 1952 respectively! [8] I imagined it would be as old as anything else here, but this mausoleum is relatively modern.
ISO 100, 35mm, f/9.0, 1/200s.

Dome

Dome
ISO 100, 45mm, f/13.0, 1/100s.

Glass Maker

Glass Maker
Here, in the City of the Dead, you can buy handmade glassware.
ISO 450, 14mm, f/1.8, 1/50s.

Goodbye Garbage City

Goodbye Garbage City
Time to say goodbye to the Garbage City and its inhabitants.
ISO 100, 55mm, f/4.5, 1/320s.