The fifth Pharoah of Thebes, Astarte Shadono, has declared open war on the vagrants and villagers in the city limits.
Vagrancy has become more of a problem recently despite the city's prosperity; experts have suggested this is because the city, traditionally always expanding and creating more and more jobs, has stopped expanding due to the fact everyone is more or less content, a vast urban complex stretching across three districts and with possessions flung all the way from the Delta to Nubia.
But, rather than simply continue expanding, the Pharoah's sole focuses lately have been building up the army and constructing luxurious tombs on the eastern bank(he considers the mastabas most nobles and the previous pharoahs are buried in on the west side primitive and peasant-like), all for himself. Apparently, he plans to have his body cut up into multiple pieces or somehow acquire multiple bodies to fill each tomb.
Villagers have become a problem in the urban centers along the bank. This is because many farmers have reverted to their primitive ways, setting up huts in the pockets of land that are available between farmhouses and other civilised abodes. The fact they dared to completely defy Egyptian society's superiority altogether has made the Pharoah board the rage train. He has ordered all villagers expelled into the fringes of the city.
Due to how he can't seem to execute them all without causing bleeding hearts to protest, he has discovered that villager and vagrant alike have an allergy to plazas. Considering it a blessing from Ra himself, the Pharoah has thus ordered any unused areas of the city to be paved over, and any homes on top of them demolished. The villagers, thus, are forced further and further away from the grounds. Word is the Pharoah wishes to drive them into the desert so they will starve. In the meantime, once he is satisfied with the boundaries, he will use the vast amount of bricks (in the 2000+ range) in the city's stores to build a gigantic wall.
While his own personality sanity is questionable, the accomplishments of the three prior Pharoahs (and to an extent, Astarte's own work) somewhat cancel it out.
Already seen was the first peasant district, the first region of the Astartian Purge. Since day one, it has been considered the slums; while the nobility and some fortunate shopkeepers(and to an extent, servants) set up a giant hedonistic society on a central island in the middle of the Nile, many shopkeepers, brickmakers, bakers, and farmers were forced to toil day and night in unpaved paths, incredible heat, and with little chance of social mobility.
In recent years, a heavy soldier presence has established itself in the first peasant district. While some may consider it a frivolous expense, the military helped modernise and improve the quality of life in the area. As commanders moved in to train the troops and man guard posts, scribes also moved in to assess taxes(traditionally, all scribes resided on the Island of Wealth in the middle of the Nile). Priests were soon summoned to provide worship services to the soldiers, and later the farmers and other locals. Between soldiers and farmers and the lobbying of several nobles, the Pharoahs opened up hospitals and apothecaries and more priests. The minimal ruling class of the western banks created luxury shops to service them, so they would not need to cross to the ever more crowded island of wealth. The educated elites of the West Bank established themselves as the local nobility in their own right, and the poorer groups still benefited from the influx of government interest.
Later, an obelisk was added to the area to remind the poor masses of royal superiority; this was constructed between the Fourth and Fifth reigns.