Preservationists say highway construction by the Egyptian government threatens to destroy Cairo's City of the Dead, a vast historic cemetery that has been in use for more than 1,000 years.

Historic Cairo cemetery faces destruction from new highways as Egypt's government reshapes the city. September 11, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. by LEE KEATH and SAMY MAGDY / Associated Press ...

Graves are seen in the American Cemetery in Cairo. Courtesy of Jean Isteero Cairo — Nestled among several other cemeteries in Old Cairo, sits the only American Cemetery in Egypt's ancient capital.

Before Egypt’s dynasties, rural rituals and astral burials shaped beliefs that later defined the divine and sacred order.

The mausoleum of Rashwan Basha, built around 1920 in a new-Islamic style housing the graves and now threatened with demolition, is seen in Cairo's historic City of the Dead, Egypt, Sept. 1, 2023.

A bulldozer demolishes structures in Cairo's historic City of the Dead, Egypt, on Aug. 26. Authorities have already razed hundreds of tombs as they carry out plans to build a network of multilane ...

New highways carve into Cairo’s City of the Dead cemetery as Egypt’s government reshapes the city Preservationists say highway construction by the Egyptian government threatens to destroy ...

By LEE KEATH and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — The cane chairs and umbrella still stand in the courtyard of Hussein Omar’s family mausoleum, where his grandmother came every morning ...

Residents of Cairo's historic City of the Dead, fly their kites in front of the ancient domed mausoleum of Mohammed Fadel Basha Daramally in Cairo, Egypt, Sept. 1, 2023.