Hanging by a Thread: Inside the Death-Defying World of Rappel Graffiti

A woman stared out her window across a narrow Giza street, watching a figure dressed in black suspended from a rope apply silver paint to a brick wall a half dozen stories up. It was 3:30 a.m., but this neighborhood in the shadow of the pyramids had not gone quiet. People still walked the streets below. At least 20 surrounding buildings had clear sightlines to what graffiti artist RAMS was doing: painting the first rappel piece in Egypt. “I was already committed and locked into the building, so...