For years, the Zabbaleen would live in makeshift villages where they would move around trying to avoid the local authorities, but in the early 1980s, they settled on the Mokattam rocks just at the eastern edge of the city.
Durante anos, os Zabbaleen viveram em vilas improvisadas e viviam mudando constantemente, tentando evitar as autoridades locais, mas, por volta de 1980, eles se assentaram nas montanhas Mokatam, bem no limite oriental da cidade.