Mokattam

This morning I went out to a section of town called Mokattam with two of my coworkers. Mokattam is known as 'Garbage City' and it's easy to see why. The streets are lined with garbage and the buildings are filled with it. Mokattam is a section of town very few tourists ever see; it's Cairo's main garbate dump, but it's also home to the people who collect Cairo's trash. Over 40,000 people live here, less than half of which are garbage collectors; the rest are their families. These people actually make a living from sorting through the trash from a city of 20 million people and recycling what they can.
From the top of 'Mokattam Mountain', the view is horrifyingly incredible. There are piles of trash everywhere, in the streets, in the houses, on the roof, and both humans and animals are living right in the midst of it.