They extend to the north and to the south of the Cairo Citadel, below the Mokattam Hills and outside the historic city walls, covering an area roughly 4 miles (6.4 km) long.

[1][3] This phenomenon led to much media commentary and popular imagination about the condition of those living in the necropolises, linking them symbolically to Cairo's much-discussed overpopulation problems and sometimes leading to exaggerated estimates of the number of people squatting in the mausoleums.

[3] Since 2020, the Egyptian government has demolished some historic tombs in the cemeteries for the purpose of building new highways and infrastructure through the area, eliciting protests and objections from locals and conservationists.

[1]: 123 The beginnings of Cairo's necropolis date back to the foundation and subsequent growth of the city of Fustat, founded in 642 CE by 'Amr ibn al-'As, the Arab Muslim commander who led the conquest of Egypt.

[1][12] By the end of Abbasid rule in Egypt in the 10th century, the necropolis is reported to have covered an enormous area stretching several kilometers from the southern edge of al-Qata'i (close to the Mosque of Ibn Tulun and the later Citadel of Salah ad-Din) to the former lake of Birkat al-Habash (just south of the modern Ring Road today in the Basatin district).

[1] The Fatimid dynasty revived or reintroduced ancient Egyptian traditions of building monumental mausoleums and of visiting ancestors' graves, which subsequently changed the character of the cemeteries.

[1][13] The Fatimids built a number of palaces and residences within the Greater Qarafa cemetery and along the roads between Fustat and their new royal city of al-Qahira (from which the name "Cairo" originates) to the northeast.

[1] These did not supplant the Great Palaces (located on the site of Bayn al-Qasrayn today), but served as leisurely retreats from the city and as places to stay while visiting the tombs of Muhammad's descendants.

[13] These developments and practices during the Fatimid era led to the emergence, or resurgence, of the popular traditions of visiting the graves of family members and ancestors for holidays and vacations.

It also set a precedent for people living in the cemeteries, as the new establishments inside the Qarafa required workers to operate, and the religious foundations attracted scholars and Sufis.

[12] The most significant foundation here appears to have been the Zawiya of Shaykh Zayn al-Din Yusuf in 1299, which attracted pilgrims and formed the core of a new habitable district which later became the neighbourhood of al-Qadiriya.

[1][12] In 1320, Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad put an end to the games and the military functions of the area were abandoned, but it came to be inhabited by Sufi orders searching for space outside the crowded city.

[1] The funerary complex of Sultan Qaytbay, for example, considered a masterpiece of Mamluk architecture, is often described as a "royal suburb", since it included a host of services and establishments to serve both short-term stays and long-term residents.

Starting in 1348, a number of Mamluk amirs built mausoleums and religious foundations in this area, forming another small necropolis still visible today, though it did not blend with the rest of the Northern Cemetery until later.

[1] The regime also taxed waqfs, the legal trust agreements that governed many of the mausoleums and religious buildings, which reduced the ability of those who managed them to pay for the upkeep of the monuments.

[1] Just as elsewhere in Cairo, this involved the construction of unofficial housing without government approval in areas where people could find space to build – or where they were able to demolish or incorporate older structures.

[1] In the 21st century, living conditions have slowly improved with greater access to running water and electricity, while the denser neighborhoods are serviced by facilities like a medical center, schools, and a post office.

Today, the cemeteries are also crossed and split by rail lines and major roads such as the ring-roads of Shari'a Salah Salem and Kobri Al Ebageah, thus creating prominent barriers between parts of the necropolis that were once contiguous with each other.

[1] North of this, the cemeteries around the Sayyida Nafisa Mosque are separated from the rest of the necropolis by the modern Salah Salem ring road, and form the neighbourhood of al-Khalifa which blends into the main urban fabric of Cairo at this point.

Salah ad-Din also built the first Sunni madrasa in Egypt here, based on the Shafi'i madhhab, in order to counter the long-running missionary efforts of the Shi'a Fatimids (whom he had deposed).

[1] In 1907 it was incorporated into the city's transit network via a streetcar (no longer extant) that ran from Imami al-Shafi'i Square (in front of the mosque) to the Pyramids in the west, thus promoting its development.

The area was progressively developed by Mamluk sultans in the 14th and 15th centuries as they sought space to build their own grand funerary monuments outside the overcrowded city and the by-then saturated Qarafa south of the Citadel.

Also notable are the large funerary complexes of Amir Qurqumas and Sultan Inal further north, along with other smaller but prominent mausoleums topped by the stone domes which became distinctive of Mamluk architecture.

[1] Nonetheless, a number of famous historical figures are believed to be buried here, including the Fatimid vizier Badr al-Gamali, the scholar and traveler Ibn Khaldun, and probably the historian al-Maqrizi; though unfortunately the locations of their tombs are now unknown.

[1] Badr al-Gamali is responsible for the construction of the nearby city walls (including the gate of Bab al-Nasr), and his decision to be interred here may have marked the beginning of the cemetery, whose fortunes subsequently rose and fell along with those of the surrounding neighborhoods.

It does not correspond to one administrative district (qism) in the Egyptian census but stretches across several, with some cemeteries blending into the main urban fabric of Cairo without presenting a clear border between city and necropolis.

[23] Popular representations have been criticized by some scholars for relying too heavily on the story of the "tomb-dwellers" (people squatting in the tomb structures), whose existence has been sensationalized in the media and whose numbers are almost certainly greatly exaggerated or misconstrued.

[1][3] Official attitudes have varied from modest measures to improve living conditions to bold proposals to forcibly move the inhabitants, but no overarching plan has been put into effect so far.

In the Northern Cemetery, the funerary complex of Sultan Qaytbay has been undergoing a long-term restoration project carried out by an organization named ARCHiNOS with the help of European Union funding.

[4] As of September 2023, it was reported that around two thousand tombs were earmarked for demolition[4] and that government plans in the area included the construction of "two new highways, two large roundabouts, a giant cloverleaf and the widening of other roads.