In traditional Cairo the roof was the place for relaxation. Families grew plants, kept pigeons or looked at the stars there. After 1920 the roof took on a new function. With the arrival of high-rise and apartment complexes the roof became the living quarters for cleaners and concierges. In the 1960s, after the fall of the monarchy and the nationalisation of considerable private property, a wave of migrants came from the countryside to the city. In the hope of a better life they joined others from their families who already lived on the roofs of Cairo. A rank growth of shanties on roofs was the result.

Randa Shaath (b. United States, 1963) lived for ten years on the fourteenth floor of an apartment building in Cairo, and watched with amazement the life that went on on the roofs beneath her. She decided to photograph it, in doing so recording a world that remains hidden from the streets of Cairo.