Cairo : Walk through Garbage City to St Simon The Tanner Monastery

My taxi dropped me off at the City of the Dead. Then I just crossed El Nasr road and walked through Garbage City to St Simon The Tanner Monastery. Sometimes it was not easy to find my way despite the GPS but I asked for direction and it was a great way to communicate with people.

St Simon The Tanner Monastery is the largest church in the Middle East and the largest religious building in Egypt. It's a complex of coptic churches all built into caves on the escarpment of the Mokattam hills above Manshiyet Nasr district.

Manshiyet Nasr, sometimes called "the Christian Surburb" is famous for Garbage City neighbourhood, where Cairo's garbage is collected and recycled by the coptic christian Zaraeeb community, commonly called "Zabbaleen" (Garbage People). This poor community makes a living by collecting garbage, recycling salvaged materials and feeding the organic waste to their pigs. They recycle approximately 80% of the waste they collect whereas most western garbage collecting companies only recycle 30% of the waste they collect. Their recycling methods have been recognized as among most efficient in the world. In the past , the government of Egypt sold annual contracts for garbage collection to 3 international companies seriously threatening the Zaraeeb's livelihood. But it failed, the Zabbaleen garbage collection methods were by far the most effective.

Music : Nicolas Jaar - And I Say (LOZZE, Davi Lisboa Remix)