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.
Aastaid elasid zabbaleenid ajutistes külades ja kolisid tihti, et vältida kohalikke võimuesindajaid, aga 1980ndatel jäid nad paikseks Mokattami kaljudel Kairo idaserval.