In Manshiet Dahshur, 25 miles south of Cairo, the villagers recently extended the boundaries of the cemetery. For Ahmed Rageb, a carpenter who buried his cousin in the annexe, it was a logical decision. "The old cemetery is full. And there is no other place to bury my family."
There is just one problem. The new tombs are perilously close to some of Egypt's oldest: the pyramids of Dahshur, less famous than their larger cousins at Giza, but just as venerable. This is protected land, and no one is supposed to build here – yet more than 1,000 illegal tombs have appeared in the desert since January.
"What happened was crazy," said Mohamed Youssef, Dahshur's chief archaeologist. "They came and took space for about 20 generations."
The tombs nestle in the dunes below the Red Pyramid, considered the pharaohs' first successful attempt at a smooth-sided structure. To the south is the Bent Pyramid. In the east, nearer the Nile, lies the Black Pyramid – a collapsed colossus on which the villagers are most in danger of encroaching.
"Some of them have a real need for the tombs for their families," said Youssef, who said that the land had been designated as government property since the late 1970s. "But when you have 1,000 people, some of them will want to do illegal excavation."
The situation is symptomatic of a deterioration in law and order since the fall of the Mubarak regime. Nationwide, the police no longer had the inclination to patrol either the streets or sites such as Dahshur. This left the inspectors to fend for themselves.
"It's very dangerous for us," said Ramadan al-Qot, a site inspector who grew up in the village, three of whose colleagues were hospitalised following a run-in with looters in December. "The thieves hide behind the tombs and shoot at us."
The retreat of the state is just one explanation for the rise in looting and land grabs. Locals say it is also related to the way that the 2011 uprising prompted many ordinary Egyptians to shed some of their instinctive fear of authority.
"That's the reason for the building: the revolution," agreed Abdo Diab, a carpenter who has built a tomb at Dahshur. "All the people now, we are not afraid of the army or the police or any government."
"If we want something, we do it."
At Dahshur, that is what has happened. In January, a dozen people who are said to have needed tombs for their relatives started building on restricted pyramid land. The site's inspectors reported it to the police – but there was no response. "No one demolished their tombs because the government is so weak," said Youssef.
But many villagers still differentiated between their actions and the raids organised by armed gangs equipped with expensive diggers. "Some people built tombs to steal archaeology, definitely," said 28-year-old Walid Ibrahim, picnicking on the boundary between the old and new cemeteries. "But all the old tombs are full and there's no place to bury our new dead."
There have been suggestions that both the looting and the government's failure to tackle it results from the rise of Islamists who are culturally opposed to Egypt's heathen heritage. Countered Nigel Hetherington, a British archaeologist and film-maker, "There is some kind of undercurrent in this story [that this is] about Muslims against their foreign past. But it's not. I've met Salafis here, and their views are not mine – but not one of them wanted to blow up the pyramid."
Hetherington argues that the illegal building stemmed from locals' economic and social alienation from their ancient heritage. "All they are is a cash cow for tourists," said Hetherington of the pyramids. "And if you're not in that business, where's the benefit?"
Thanks to coldrum for the link. For more, see Patrick Kingsley's article at http://www.guardian.co.uk
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