Rooftops

I took this photo recently at a rooftop party my friend was throwing. He lives downtown on a rooftop that I assume was originally built by or for a bawaab. The bawaabin are caretakers who look after apartments in the rest of the building and help with repairs or certain errands. In this case, the landlord rented the rooftop home. What you see on the left is the works for the elevator shaft. Behind it were his bedroom, kitchen and bathroom.


A view from that rooftop. Note the ribbons in celebration of Ramadan.

There are probably tens or hundreds of thousands of people living on rooftops in Cairo. To be clear, unlike this friend, most of them are not pursuing advanced degrees. Much of the rooftop housing is unofficial, and almost all of it comes as an afterthought once the building has been completed. Many office and apartment buildings are built with only a few storeys in mind at first, then more came as the city grew.


I took this picture from the rooftop "Solarium" at the Lotus Hotel while I was still staying in Wust-al-Balad. From this ninth storey, you can see lots of rooftop homes from above, including those here to the middle-left and bottom right. I like this picture because it shows the sharp light and cloudless sky that I'm getting to know here in Egypt. Towards the top right, you can see the Muqqatam Hills which mark the eastern edge of Cairo.