NOT TO BE MISSED : Cairo's Khan El Khalili Bazaar

 

 

 

 

HOW BIZARRE?

How could a market in Egypt be responsible for the founding of the United States? Khan el-Khalili, once known as the Turkish bazaar during the Ottoman period was built in 1382 by the Emir Djaharks el-Khalili in the heart of the Fatimid City. Perhaps this very market was involved in the spice monopoly controlled by the Mamluks, which encouraged the Europeans to search for new routes to the east and led Columbus, indirectly, to discover the Americas, who knows?
  
During a visit to Cairo earlier this year my travelling companion and I found ourselves in Khan el Khalili. This huge market is a must when visiting the city as it is vibrant and really gave us a feeling for everyday Egyptian life, a feeling that we had not felt from the inside of our guides minibus or the foyer of our hotel. After some kebab and kofta , we decided to try a hubbly bubbly(also known as a shisha). The most popular flavour these days is mango. We ordered and watched the crowd hustle past while sipping on red tea flavoured with sugar and mint. Besides some locals reading the newspaper and some others discussing last nights big local soccer derby, I was glad to see other women around as Cairo society happily tolerates them in public chatting to friends and family and smoking a shisha.

Looking around one is aware of hundreds of little shops full of various items to buy such as traditional linen in different colours, small camel soft toys, hats, jewellery, candle holders, cups and saucers, tables and chairs, stone pyramids in all sizes and colours, nuts, karkadeh hibiscus leaves and various spices, fruit and brightly coloured tomatoes, shoes and in fact just about everything you could wish for.

Men in long robes lounge around chatting to each other while a young boy passes balancing a wooden rack of dozens of fresh round bread loaves on his bicycle, tourists with red faces are taking pictures and trying to bargain while covered women clutching bags and small children make their way home to prepare the evening meal. As the sun moved lower and even more people come to the bazaar, the Muezzin starts to call from the nearby Al Emamal Houssein Mosque.

This is an amazing atmosphere where we felt totally safe and also privileged to witness daily life that has continued virtually unchanged since the old Emir decided to build his market all those years ago. “Shukran” I said to the waiter as we wandered out of the café....



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