Challenge Issue With the emergence of cities and states, human societies
began to develop organized central governments and a concentration of power that
made it possible to build monumental structures, such as the great pyramids of
Egypt. But cities and states also ushered in a series of challenges, many of which
city dwellers still face. For example, social stratification, in which a ruling elite con-
trols the means of subsistence and many other aspects of daily life, exploits many
city dwellers and poor people in outlying areas. While the people of stratified societ-
ies are interdependent, the elite classes have disproportionate access to and control
of all resources, including human labor. In Cairo, as in other big cities, housing, for
example, is dramatically different for different social classes. While the elite live
in luxurious homes, 5 million urban poor live illegally in tomb rooms of cemeteries
known as the City of the Dead.
© Aladin Abdel Naby/Reuters/Landov