V začetku šestdesetih let so v okolici Kaira začeli graditi nova predmestja kot odgovor na silovito rast in preobljudenost. Ta puščavska mesta so komajda oživela, videti so kot mesta duhov, zapuščena, brez kakršnekoli
cestne infrastrukture; so okostnjaki gradbenih del, kocke, odvržene v otožnost puščavske pokrajine.
Leta 1992 avstrijska umetnica Aglaia Konrad potuje v Kairo. Ima namen fotografirati puščavska mesta v okolici Kaira. Pa vendar, kar se je zdelo tako preprosto, v resnici ni bilo tako. Nenastanjena puščavska mesta so bila varovana kot kakšno vojaško ozemlje, potovanje pa je bilo spričo neobstoječe elementarne infrastrukture cest sila težavno. Ob vsem tem pa so Aglaii Konrad kot ženski iz zahodnega sveta v Egiptu dovolili fotografirati le skozi zaprta okna taksija oziroma letala.
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The erection of new suburbs in the desert that surrounds Cairo, Egypt, started at the beginning of the 1960s in response to explosive growth and overpopulation. These desert towns have barely come to life, they still look like ghost towns: with no roads, with skeletons instead of constructions, they are just dice scattered into the despicable desert landscape
In 1992, the Austrian artist Aglaia Konrad travelled to Cairo determined to take photographs of desert towns around the city. But what seemed so simple in theory wasn’t so in reality. The deserted desert towns were guarded like a military zone while the non-existent road infrastructure made travelling troublesome. Besides, Aglaia Konrad, a woman from the western world, was only allowed to take pictures in Egypt from behind closed cab windows or aeroplanes.
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