[ Denis Dailleux ]

Portraits of Cairo, Egypt

In the Egyptian capital, which does not stop expanding, millions of inhabitants do not have any other place to sleep but the roofs of buildings. Up there, a whole world — invisible from the streets — lives in precarious hamlets under the open air. A city of refugees, where they are born, get married, work and die, as in a real city on top of the city. The rooftops of buildings in Cairo’s entire city centre have been occupied by a deprived population — reflections of a ‘bursting’ demography and a rural exodus, which are suffocating the capital, bastion of 17 million inhabitants. Today, everything reflects on Cairo’s terraces: the religious disorganisation, the lack of inte- rest from the state in shelter for the poorest in society, the misery. It is the Egypt of political intrigues, of religious hypocrisy (Copt or Muslim/Moor), of suppressed and clandestine homosexuality, of adultery, of police torture, of radical Islamism…1 The image of an Egypt eroded by social inequalities, political repression and the fear all of this raises.

De n i s Da i l l e u x

1 The photographer is referring to the description of Egypt as portrayed in the book the ‘The Yacoubian Building’, by the Egyptian author Alaa Al Aswany.

[ 341 ] The roofs of the buildings in the centre of Cairo are occupied by a destitute population. It is the result of a massive population growth and a rural exodus which suffocate the city of 17 million inhabitants. © Denis Dailleux / Agence VU / Cairo, Egypt

[ 342 ] District of Boulaq. In the Egyptian capital, the only place to live for thousands of inhabitants is the top of the buildings. A whole world invisible from the streets, lives in tiny makeshift villages, in the open. © Denis Dailleux / Agence VU / Cairo, Egypt

[ 343 ] In the Egyptian capital, the only place to live for thousands of inhabitants is the top of the buildings. A whole world invisible from the streets, lives in tiny makeshift villages, in the open. © Denis Dailleux / Agence VU / Cairo, Egypt

[ 344 ] The rooftop inhabitants sleep out in the open to fight off the infernal heat of the summer nights, just like this family in the district of Boulaq — one of the working class districts of Cairo. © Denis Dailleux / Agence VU / Cairo, Egypt

[ 345 ] Fatma, whose parents came from Nubia, rents a four-room flat in a building of Garden City. Without telling the owners, she built walls isolating her from the hundreds of other residents. © Denis Dailleux / Agence VU / Cairo, Egypt

[ 346 ] This old woman had a heart operation. She doesn’t leave her refuge on the top of a building in Tallat Harb Street anymore. The street is used for the president Moubarak cortège’s, on his way to his palace in Heliopolis. When used, policemen take position on the top of the buildings and lock up the rooftop inhabitants in their homes. © Denis Dailleux / Agence VU / Cairo, Egypt

[ 347 ] People live on the rooftops, pray there, and before the avian flu, they used to breed chickens and pigeons there. The roof (here, in Talaat Harb) has become a tiny village with its unspoken rules, tragedies and joys. © Denis Dailleux / Agence VU / Cairo, Egypt

[ 348 ] District of Boulaq In the Egyptian capital, the only place to live for thousands of inhabitants is the top of the buildings. A whole world invisible from the streets; living in tiny makeshift villages out in the open. Like a city put on top of the city. © Denis Dailleux / Agence VU / Cairo, Egypt

[ 349 ] Ibrahim by the tanners. © Denis Dailleux / Agence VU / Cairo, Egypt

[ 350 ] In the city of the dead, the huge cemetery of Cairo, people live in mausoleums or tumbledown houses built between the graves and on the roofs. © Denis Dailleux / Agence VU / Cairo, Egypt

[ 351 ] [ 352 ] Both pages In Garden City, a tiny village that grew under the dish antennas. On each side of the straight alleys, families occupy one or several rooms in the huts formerly used to do the laundry. © Denis Dailleux / Agence VU / Cairo, Egypt

[ 353 ] In the city of the dead, the huge cemetery of Cairo, people live in mausoleums or tumbledown houses built between the graves and on the roofs, where children play with kites. © Denis Dailleux / Agence VU / Cairo, Egypt

[ 354 ] The inhabitants of the roofs rarely meet the ones of the buildings. They must take the service stairs, as in this building in Garden City. It gives witness to two worlds who live together without mixing. © Denis Dailleux / Agence VU / Cairo, Egypt

[ 355 ] Policeman in the district of Bolac. © Denis Dailleux / Agence VU / Cairo, Egypt

[ 360 ] Amr Ibrahim dressed as a fellah (Egyptian farmer) (30 km north of Cairo). © Denis Dailleux / Agence VU / Sin de Bis, Egypt

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