Inside the fight to save an American cemetery and the secrets it holds in a ancient city

Cairo — Nestled among several other cemeteries in Old Cairo, sits the only American Cemetery in Egypt's ancient capital. The plots were neglected for years, overgrown and at risk of falling apart, until a small group of "friends" set to work to save it.  

The Reverend Andrew Watson, an American missionary, asked Egypt's ruler in 1874 for a piece of desert land in Old Cairo for an American cemetery, where the dead of any nationality and any religion could be interred. His request was approved the following year, and he described the cemetery in his book, The American Mission in Egypt, published in 1904.

"Trees have been planted which give grateful shade from the burning sun, and some other improvements have also been made to make the place appear less desolate looking," wrote Watson. He was buried there himself in 1916.