[News] Cairo masterplan threatens ancient City of the Dead

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In the early morning haze, women dressed in black and men with grim expressions gather in Cairo's centuries-old Sayyida Nafisa cemetery.

But they are not here to bury their relatives. They are here to exhume them.

"This is a double trauma," says Iman, sobbing as she directs proceedings.

"First my mother - my mentor - passed away last year. Now I am digging up her fresh body and my grandparents' remains, putting them in sacks, and driving away to rebury them in new graves in the desert."

Iman's story is not unusual. In the past two years, the locations of several thousand graves in Historic Cairo, a Unesco World Heritage Site, have been razed. They include some in the famous City of the Dead.

The Egyptian government is clearing a wide area to make way for new main roads and flyover bridges, which it says will improve traffic flow in the sprawling, congested megacity, home to about 20 million people.

These will also connect the heart of the capital with a new administrative one being built 45km (28 miles) to the east, a flagship mega-project costing billions of dollars.

The developments are being pitched as part of an effort to modernise Egypt. Since President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi came to power in 2014, official figures show a total of 7,000km (4,350 miles) of roads and some 900 bridges and tunnels have been built across the country, with military contractors carrying out much of the work.

The authorities insist that none of the many registered monuments in this old part of Cairo, some dating back to the Arab Conquests in the 7th Century, are being damaged and that due respect is being shown to the most important tombs.

"We can't do anything to harm the graves of people we admire or against monumental areas. We build bridges to avoid this," President Sisi has said. "We should not give an opening to those who want to tarnish our efforts."

His officials say that the affected gravesites are mostly from the past century and that compensation is being given.

However, there has been a public outcry over the loss of valuable architecture and a unique cultural heritage in six historic cemeteries where Egypt's notables have long been buried, often in fancy marble tombs engraved with Arabic calligraphy.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-65697835