Egypt, in the year 1974, was so filled with trash and garbage, that dead animals and people floated in the Nile. One writer describes it, " As we entered the Zabaleen Village, located at the bottom of the Mokattam cliffs, our guide rolled up the windows of our car. The buildings cast shadows over our small group, over the narrow, trash lined streets. Droves of people waded through the piles...I’d seen poverty in the U.S. and South America. I’d seen squalor. I’d never seen anything like this."

In those cliffs, the Cave worship center of the Coptic Church Founded in by Father Abouna Samaan Ibrahim protects the worshippers from the devastating smell and desease. While the church people recycle the trash of the city, even Muslims remark at the safety they feel in their mosques, because the Christians protect the city from death.

The Coptics had learned how to clean the city and to make money from the trash, as well as providing a proper burial for the dead, who formerly were tossed in the garbage. The culture of death changed, because 5000 Christians sacrificed their lives to make existance bearable in the midst of the desease. They'd done this since the 1940's. They had turned persecution into profit for decades! Even their Muslim neighbors noticed the peace of the Zabaleen (garbage people), who were mostly Coptics!