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City of the Dead II


City of the Dead II
Photo Information
Copyright: Alp Capa (ArcapA) Silver Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Silver Note Writer [C: 30 W: 16 N: 12] (186)
Genre: Places
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2002-06
Categories: Architecture, Decisive Moment
Camera: Nikon 4004 S
Photo Version: Original Version
Date Submitted: 2006-03-13 4:21
Viewed: 1351
Favorites: 1 [view]
Points: 18
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
This is the modified version of the photo I posted at TE today. http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Africa/Egypt/photo339514.htm I wanted to change the shot in a way to show life and death at the same time. There are no filters or effects added. I just decreased the blacks to a minimum level to create a "ghosty" appearence along with the increase in reds and yellows to represent "life" at the same time. I think it came out to be very interesting.

City of the Dead:

For many Cairenes the City of the Dead is a mysterious, foreboding area. Many Cairenes are aware of its existence but few understand this group of vast cemeteries that stretches out along the base of the Moqattam Hills.

Among these cemeteries lives a community of Egypt’s urban poor, forming an illegal but tolerated, separate society. “More than five million Egyptian live in these cemeteries, and have formed their own enterprises,” said Malak Yakan, an anthropologist and tour guide.

“There are five major cemeteries in this city there, the Northern Cemetery, Bab el Nasr Cemetery, the Southern Cemetery, the Cemetery of the Great, and Bab el Wazir Cemetery,” said Yakan.

From the Salah Salem Highway, the City of the Dead appears to be organized and proper, a match for the beige, sandy landscape of the distant Citadel. Inside, however these cemeteries bear witness to the centuries of Cairo’s history.

In modern times, because of Egypt’s housing crisis, a lack of satisfactory and affordable housing for a rapidly growing population, many poor Egyptians have made these rooms their permanent homes.

These invaders have adapted the rooms to meet their needs. They have used the grave markers as desks, and shelves. They have hung strings between gravestones for their laundry to dry out.

The City of the Dead seems to its inhabitants ideal because it is already built, affordable, and partially equipped. However there are many disadvantages of living there. “They are joined by even a greater number of cockroaches, mosquitoes, flies, and vermin of all sorts", writes Nedoroscik in The City of the Dead, A History of Cairo’s Cemetery Communities.

The rooms are also filled with the overwhelming smell of the garbage piled outside their doors and sewage leaking out of the un-drained tanks.

In addition, “The residents settling in the City of the Dead are insecure about their living status because they are living there against the law,” said Yakan. It was the French occupation from 1978-1801 that began changing the image of the vast cemeteries of the City of the Dead.

The cemeteries built in the City of the Dead are much different than the western idea of cemeteries. This is because traditionally, Egyptians buried their dead in room-like “burial sites” so they could live in them during the long mourning period of forty days.

Today, the population of the City of the Dead is growing rapidly because of rural migration and it’s complicated housing crisis that is getting worse.
graemann, pompey, Biero, szatanowska has marked this note useful
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Discussions
ThreadThread Starter Messages Updated
To LuciG: thank youArcapA 1 03-17 18:18
To marjan: thank youArcapA 1 03-17 06:12
To jokiedokie: thank youArcapA 1 03-17 06:12
To graemann: thank youArcapA 1 03-17 06:11
To pompey: thank youArcapA 1 03-17 06:11
To Biero: thank youArcapA 1 03-17 06:10
To TonyFoto: thank youArcapA 1 03-17 06:10
To EvaOlga: thank youArcapA 1 03-17 06:09
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Critiques [Translate]

this is very very great work and i really like it a lot
tones of coloures are perfect and close to painting
very naice capture
and arabic letters on the rock boards look perfectly in thistone
very great
all the best
olga

Hi Alp,
Like the paiting effect very much. Very special and original.
Antony

  • Great 
  • Biero Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor [C: 259 W: 41 N: 244] (3381)
  • [2006-03-13 8:33]
  • [+]

Hi Alp Resat,
For me your photo like the city of the gold...I love the color.
It's a very good work.
The place look very mysterious.
Bravo Alp Resat.
Pierre

Great work Alp, your picture is very artistic and appealing.
The note is exceptionally informative, I have driven (or more accurately, been driven), past these cemetries and never knew the history.
Your notes have made me want to learn more and for that, I thank you.
Thanks for sharing.
Michael.

hello. I like the editing in this one.
Really awesome!

Well done mate.

lovely pp work, it looks like a unfinished painting. that in relation to the title...a really good choise!

Hi ALp, very nice dwork. TFS
MArjan

  • Great 
  • LuciG Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1286 W: 153 N: 729] (8681)
  • [2006-03-17 16:31]
  • [+]

HI ALP.
This is trully a great work. I love the PP work and how you emphasise the warmth with those yellow colors. It's a different but very pleasent composition.
Congratulations.
Luci

Phenomenal PP work, it reminds me of 1000+1 nights or something :) Very different from the original; an entirely different approach.

TFS

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