A photographer captures these monumental dwellings in all their surreal detail.
London-based photographer Manuel Alvarez Diestro has a yen for the monumental—he's documented the mountain-eating cemeteries of Hong Kong and satellite dish-crusted apartment towers of Algiers. So naturally he was interested in the colossal structures rising on the outskirts of Egyptian cities. His recent journey to Cairo, Alexandria, Hurghada, and other 'burgs has resulted in "New Cairo," an eerie, almost surreal look at Egypt's manifest destiny. Great walls of residential projects teeter on the edge of the desert, with nothing apparent on the other side but vast expanses of sand.
Though they look like ghost cities, one day these places will stir with life. "The houses are in the middle of construction, with the exception of some that are almost finished," emails Alvarez Diestro, who's 42. "It is interesting that they build them with no fences around and they're visible to all passing around. All of them will be occupied, especially those ones for the lower classes that happen to be the majority of the population and are experiencing an important growth."