The Alley

The alleyway is one of fiction's most oft-used settings to depict the belly of society. The destitute, the wretched, the immoral or the occult. In our complex city, the alleyway is often the setting for communal prayer, a shared meal, a party or the dumping ground for our trash problem. I don't know what secrets this alley in Midan El Game' (literally, "the Roundabout of the Mosque") holds, but doesn't it look like it's straight out of a novel?

Shobra Slums

Cairo is often one large paradox. Take, for example, the view from one of my windows at work. I work in Cairo's most expensive and extravagant pair of buildings, in which tens of thousands of people are employed by huge corporations. These buildings are a highlight of the Cairo skyline and are the definition of prime real estate. Right behind them, however, tens of millions of people live below the poverty line, sharing their tiny, rundown buildings and rooftops with trash and livestock.

If you look closely, you'll see a woman in pink putting her laundry out to dry on the roof.

(Excuse the reflected newspaper. It only showed up when I moved the images to my computer)