The American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) and the Drop of Milk association have recently completed a small but significant conservation project in the ancient Bassatine Cemetery of Cairo, believed to be the second-oldest Jewish cemetery in the world. The work, funded by the US Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP), also includes the documentation and mapping of what remains of the site.

The project aspires to be the first remarkable step to ensure the long-term sustainability of the site, and is part of the ongoing efforts of Egypt’s tiny Jewish community to preserve and rethink its heritage and highlight the country’s historical and cultural diversity.

“When I [first] visited the cemetery [with a member of Drop of Milk], I was astonished by the diversity of tombs of all different periods of Egypt’s history, and it is unfortunate that very little from the cemetery remains,” Louise Bertini, ARCE’s executive director, told Al-Monitor. “So we thought about what we could do to help document and conserve what is left, and that is when we applied for a US Ambassadors grant.”

Only surpassed by the cemetery at the Mount of Olives, in Jerusalem, the Bassatine Cemetery dates back to the 9th century and lies in the southeast of Cairo. The site was initially built on a plot of land granted by Ahmed ibn Tulun, founder of the Tulunid dynasty that ruled Egypt and Syria at the time, and it was divided into two areas reserved for the country’s Rabbinate and Karaite Jewish communities.