CAIRO — The Egyptian capital of Cairo, which was established in 969, is characterized by its various architectural designs and artistic styles, turning the city into an open air museum and sparking everyone’s curiosity. 

As part of efforts to shed light on the city’s history and historical buildings, Zizo Abdo, an archaeologist focusing on Cairo’s heritage, launched an initiative called Cairo Biography. The initiative seeks to preserve Cairo’s heritage and raise awareness about the need to safeguard it through various means. 

Abdo and a team from his initiative spent months cleaning and removing the garbage from around some of the monuments in Cairo that have been neglected over the years. He filmed videos narrating the history of the ancient neighborhoods since Cairo’s inception, as well as the changes made to ancient houses, mosques, sebils (fountains with Islamic traditional architecture) and tekyehs (hospices or poorhouses) as part of a documentary series dubbed “Cairo’s biography through its rich paths.”

The documentary — which includes eight episodes posted on the Facebook page of the initiative — aims to shed light on Cairo’s heritage given the religious, historical and architectural importance of the city, Abdo said.