Memluk cemetery

I wanted to see it from the time I heard about it. The city of the dead. A cemetery where people live in between tombs. I would catch a glimpse of this place every now and then when I was passing through, but for some reason I kept postponing my visit.

It turned out to be the most memorable experience for me in Cairo. The feeling kept nagging me as if this was not real. It was a different time and I had intruded. People kept looking at me. People who shouldn't have been there. Empty roads, tombstones, mosques in ruins. I walked in the Ibn Barquq and Qaitbey mosques. Entry was not allowed into Amir Qurqumas which was so much in ruins it looked like it could go down any time. I couldn't help feel sad for the relics of an era that were disappearing and no one noticed. Someone later told me that I was visiting all the places where there were signs of my ancestors. I had never imagined Memluks to be my ancestors. Slave Turk soldiers from the Caucuses who had wrestled power in Egypt (among other places) and founded their own state which lasted for 3 centuries until the Ottomans came. But the more I heard their names, ending with Bey, old Turkish names from Asia, the more familiar they felt. Their signs are all over this city. I keep discovering as I walk on the dusty roads