At the recommendation of Tash’s cousin, Rebecca, a past Cairo resident, we took a day trip to a ward of the city we may not otherwise have thought to visit. Garbage City, with the rock-hewn Monastery of St Simon the Tanner at its zenith, shows Cairo at its most industrious and unexpected. Spread over the hillside Mansherya Nasiran is a Coptic Christian area where the Zabbaleen people live and work. Lacking an effective municipal system the people of this district collect, sort and recycle the waste of the city. Having created one of the most efficient recycling systems in world this amazingly productive settlement is a fascinating place to visit.
After being dropped off by a slightly bemused taxi driver on the edge of a duel carriage-way we arrived on the outskirts of Garbage City. Without direction we headed up and in, following a road that narrowed as the buildings crowded overhead. Cramped alleyways, twisted stairwells and uneven pathways ran off the main road into the mysterious district. Just like the architecture the atmosphere seemed to close in, we felt like outsiders and wondered if we were welcome. Although there was an air of suspicion when we asked for directions we were helped to find our winding way to the Monastery.
As its name suggests rubbish was everywhere, not only on the floor but overflowing from trucks, carts, rubbish bags and workshops. Big bundles of sorted material were stacked outside openings indicating which type of waste this particular establishment dealt in. Peering inside, what would in other districts be various shop fronts, we were met with the all consuming enterprise of life here. From the depths of these dark spaces people of all ages split, cut, removed, discarded, bundled and sorted waste of all kinds. Bottles, film reel, cardboard, electrical goods and timber are just some of the many types of material we saw being recycled. Women chatted atop mountains of bottles, others sweated in fume-filled rooms housing essential recycling machinery, men hauled bundles of waste off and on overloaded trucks, whilst amongst it all children worked and played.
The smoke from the vehicles and workshops intermingles with the sweet odour of rotting food waste adding another layer of claustrophobia to this warren of activity. At the top of a steep climb the gates of the monastery suddenly appear, opening up to a completely different world. A rubbish-less path leads through carefully tended gardens, the air is fresh and the sudden lack of activity amplifies the serenity.
This religious site is carved into the rock and encircled by giant biblical friezes. These cave churches are part of the mountain, with altars nestled in the deepest point and rock-hewn benches for the congregation to sit on spreading out in amphitheatre style. The largest of these churches can hold up to 20,000 worshippers which must be a sight to behold if you visit on a Sunday.
The monastery also offers a unique Cairo view of the rooftops of Garbage city. The spaces that top unfinished blocks are a further hive of activity, home to herds of goats, pens of pigs, lines of washing and the ubiquitous stilted lofts of Egypt’s much loved pigeons.
