Garbage City or Maadeenah az-zableen

Garbage city houses 40,000 people. 95% are coptic christians. In Egypt, the christians are either very poor or extremely rich. The people that live in Garbage city collect the garbage from all over Egypt and bring it back to the city. In the city you can see and smell the large bags of trash piled all over town. In buildings, on top of buildings...everywhere. I've heard the people keep their homes relatively neat and clean, but I didn't get a chance to go into anyone's apartment. The city use to have pigs that ate the trash; but the government killed them during the swine flu scare. It's a sobering sight. There is a monastary at one end of the city built into the cave that overlooks the city. It's an amazing justaposition to see this church in such a destitute place. Inspiring to have it there. I read in my "let's go" book that about 400 people come to the church every week... I'm not religious, but I felt a sense of awe in this place.