High demand for affordable housing has propelled an illegal and unsafe building boom, Hamada Elrasam says in a photo essay for VOA News. The explosion of illegal housing is a product of “unmanaged growth and often nonexistent planning,” which has led to the destruction of fertile farmlands along the Nile. “Urban sprawl in Egypt is threatening not only agricultural land but also the country’s cultural heritage. And yet, government figures show the majority of Egypt’s population lives in 6 percent of the land,” Elrasam says.