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archaeologists fear for sites illegal pyramid building accelerated in the wake of the Arab Spring

In Manshiet Dahshur, 25 kilometers south of Cairo, villagers have recently expanded the boundaries of the cemetery. For Rageb Ahmed, a carpenter who buried his cousin in the annex, it was a logical decision. "We bury the dead," he said, walking in the cemetery again after visiting the grave of his cousin. "The old cemetery is full. And there is no place to bury my family."

only problem. New graves are dangerously close to some of the oldest in Egypt, the pyramids of Dahshur, less known than its larger cousins ??in Giza, but equally venerable. This area is protected and nobody should build here - but more than 1,000 illegal graves have appeared in the desert since January

"What happened was crazy," said Mohammed Youssef, chief archaeologist of Dahshur. "They came and took space for 20 generations."

the nest graves in the dunes below the red pyramid, considered the first successful attempt of the pharaohs in the smooth-walled structure. To the south is the Bent Pyramid, so called because its warped walls. In the east, near the Nile, is the black pyramid - a colossus collapses in which the villagers are most at risk of invasion. It is your right, Reda said Dabus, an employee of worship in the mosque next to the cemetery. "All men are born here," said Dabus. "They were killed here. Should have the right to be buried here." The land area is hard to find in Egypt, where 99% of the population lives on 5.5% of the territory.

But this is disputed by local archaeologists, who say that there is something dark moving argument looting. "Some of them have a real need for the graves of their loved ones," said Youssef, who said that the land had been designated as the property of the government since the late 1970s. "But when you have 1,000 people, some of them want to do illegal searches."

others agree. "They use the new graves to hide what they are doing," said Ramadan al-QOT a site inspector who grew up in the village. Observers say the cemetery is the latest in a series of raids which have increased . significantly banned from the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak Over 500 illegal Dahshur excavations have taken place since 2011 - reflects an increase in sites across the country

"Dahshur is simply a case study of what happens to all archaeological sites in Egypt," said Monica Hanna, which advocates for more resources to be allocated to the ancient sites of Egypt. "It happened in the Nile Valley, El Hiba, in Beni Suef. Everywhere."

In the months after the fall of Mubarak in the spring of 2011, Nigel Hetherington, British archaeologist and filmmaker, documented dozens of new illegal buildings in the ancient sites between Cairo Dahshur. "They were openly trying to build," said Hetherington. "They were not afraid of being shot."

The situation is indicative of a breakdown of law and order after the fall of the Mubarak regime. At national level, the police, whose brutality was one of the main causes of the insurrection of 2011, I did not want to patrol the streets, or sites like Dahshur. "After the revolution," said Youssef, "the police would not do anything." This left the inspectors to their fate.

"This is why the construction: the revolution," Diab coincided Abdo, a carpenter who built a tomb at Dahshur. "All the people now who are not afraid of the army or the police or government."

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