Djehouty · File:Historisches Kairo 2016-03-28t.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) · https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Historisches_Kairo_2016-03-28t.jpg
Attraction · Cairo
Khan el-Khalili
A market trading on the same ground since the fourteenth century, wrapped around some of the finest medieval architecture anywhere — and almost nobody walks past the first two lanes.
Time needed2 – 3 hours
Best timeLate afternoon into evening
WhereIslamic Cairo, east bank
Trading since1382
BargainingExpected, and friendly
ClosedQuieter on Sunday
About
Khan el-Khalili
Khan el-Khalili has been a market on this ground since 1382, when an emir cleared a Fatimid burial site and built a caravanserai on it, and it sits in the middle of a district that holds several centuries of mosques, madrasas, fountains and merchant houses — a quantity of intact medieval Islamic architecture that would be the entire tourism industry of a smaller country. What most visitors see is the first two lanes: souvenir alabaster, papyrus, cartouches, and shopkeepers with excellent English and a great deal of patience. What is a hundred metres further in is the market Cairo actually uses — coppersmiths, gold, textiles, spice, perfume oils, and a coffee house that has been open since the eighteenth century. The way to visit is to walk past the part that is trying to sell to you and keep going.
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What to See
What to see and do
Half the point is the market and half is the district it sits inside. Do both or the visit is a shopping trip.
The market
- The main lanes off Midan Hussein for the tourist trade — alabaster, papyrus, brass, inlaid boxes — which are worth walking through rather than stopping in.
- The gold souq and the coppersmiths deeper in, where the trade is local and the workshops are behind the stalls.
- The spice and perfume sellers, where whole vanilla, hibiscus, dried limes and oils are sold by weight to people cooking with them.
- El Fishawi, the coffee house that has been open since the eighteenth century, which is a tourist institution and a genuine one at the same time.
The architecture around it
- The mosque-madrasa of Sultan Barquq and the complex of Qalawun on al-Muizz street, which is one of the great medieval streets anywhere and is pedestrianised in the evening.
- Bab Zuweila, the southern gate of the Fatimid city, whose minarets can be climbed for the best view over the whole district.
- The Al-Azhar mosque opposite, founded in 970 and one of the oldest continuously operating universities in the world.
- Beit al-Suhaymi, a seventeenth-century merchant’s house with courtyards and mashrabiya screens, a few minutes north and almost empty.
Buying things
- Bargaining is expected, normal and good-humoured, and the opening price is a starting position rather than an insult.
- Spice, oils, textiles and copper are the things worth buying. Papyrus and alabaster are mostly not what they are described as.
- Anything claimed to be antique almost certainly is not, and exporting genuine antiquities is illegal — a useful thing to know before a long negotiation.
Getting There
Getting there
In the medieval city on the east bank, which is the same side as most central hotels and the opposite side from Giza.
From central Cairo
- Fifteen to thirty minutes by car from downtown or Zamalek depending on traffic, and drivers drop at Midan Hussein.
- The metro reaches the edge of the district and is quicker than a car at rush hour, though it is a walk at the other end.
- It is on the east bank. Anyone staying near the pyramids is crossing the river, which at the wrong hour is the whole evening.
Combining it
- With the Citadel and the Mosque of Muhammad Ali, which are up the ridge above and make a natural afternoon before this.
- With al-Muizz street, which runs north from Bab Zuweila through the heart of the medieval city and is closed to traffic in the evenings.
- With Al-Azhar Park, on the ridge to the east, which has the best skyline view in Cairo and a place to sit down.
Inside the market
- It is a warren and it is meant to be. Keep Midan Hussein and the Al-Azhar mosque as your bearings and getting lost stops mattering.
- The lanes are narrow, uneven and busy, with motorbikes and handcarts using them.
- It is at its best in the late afternoon and evening, when the district lights up and the shopping is local.
Best Time
When to visit
This is an evening place. Nearly everything about it works better after four o’clock.
Time of day
- Late afternoon into the evening, when the temperature drops, the lanes light up and the market fills with people buying rather than browsing.
- Mornings are quiet and many of the deeper workshops are shut, which makes for easy walking and a thinner experience.
- The coffee houses run late; there is no reason to leave early.
Time of year
- October to April is comfortable, and the district is at its best on a winter evening.
- Summer evenings are perfectly usable even when the days are not.
- Ramadan transforms it — quiet by day, and extraordinary after sunset, with the whole district out. It is worth planning for rather than around.
How long
- Two hours for the market alone, and three to four if you include al-Muizz street and Bab Zuweila.
- Half an hour, which is what a coach stop allows, is enough to buy a souvenir and see nothing.
- Dinner in the district afterwards is the natural end and the district has plenty of it.
Visitor Intelligence
Visitor intelligence
A place with a well-earned reputation for pressure, and a straightforward way to enjoy it anyway.
Handling the sell
- The pressure is concentrated in the first two lanes and drops sharply the further in you go. Walking on is the whole technique.
- “No, thank you” said once, pleasantly, and then not repeated or explained, works better than anything else.
- Nobody here is dangerous and almost nobody is hostile; it is commerce, and it is done with humour if you meet it that way.
Bargaining
- Expected and normal. Decide what the thing is worth to you before you ask, and be willing to walk, which is the only real leverage.
- Buying more than one item from the same seller is the ordinary route to a better price.
- Tea is often offered during a negotiation. Accepting it does not commit you to anything.
Safety and comfort
- It is busy rather than risky. Ordinary crowd sense — a zipped bag, a wallet in a front pocket — is all that is needed.
- Women travellers generally report more attention here than in Europe; a guide changes that markedly and is worth having in the evening.
- Wear shoes you can walk uneven cobbles in and expect to be on your feet for the whole visit.
Photography
- Ask before photographing people, especially shopkeepers and especially in the working parts of the market.
- The architecture — mashrabiya screens, gates, minarets — is the more rewarding subject and needs no permission.
- Evening light in the lanes is warm, low and uneven; a fast lens earns its place here.
Nearby
Nearby
Everything below is in the medieval city or a short drive from it.
Cairo
The city this sits in the middle of — the Citadel, Coptic Cairo and the museums.
The Egyptian Museum
Twenty minutes west, and the usual morning to this afternoon.
The Pyramids of Giza
Across the river on the west bank — a different day, and a different side of the traffic.
Al-Muizz street and Bab Zuweila
The medieval spine running south from the market, pedestrianised in the evening. No page of its own yet.
Good to Know
Frequently asked
The first two lanes are, and almost everybody stops there. A hundred metres further in it becomes the market Cairo actually uses — coppersmiths, gold, textiles, spice sold by weight to people cooking with it — and the pressure drops away with the souvenirs. The way to visit is to walk past the part that is trying to sell to you. The district around it, which is several centuries of intact medieval architecture, is not a tourist trap by any definition.
Openly and cheerfully. The opening price is a starting position, not a claim, and nobody is offended by a counter-offer. Decide what the item is worth to you before you ask the price, make an offer you would be happy to pay, and be genuinely willing to walk away — which is the only real leverage anyone has. Buying several things from one seller is the usual route to a better price. Tea offered mid-negotiation commits you to nothing.
Spice, dried hibiscus, whole vanilla and dried limes; perfume oils, sold by the millilitre; cotton and linen textiles; and copper and brass work, which is still being made in workshops behind the stalls. What is generally not what it is described as: papyrus, most alabaster, and anything presented as antique — which, if it genuinely were, would be illegal to take out of the country.
Late afternoon into the evening. The temperature drops, the lanes light up, the deeper workshops are open and the market fills with people buying rather than browsing. Mornings are quiet and easy to walk but much of the working market is shut. During Ramadan the whole district is quiet by day and extraordinary after sunset, which is worth planning for if your dates fall there.
It is busy rather than dangerous, and ordinary crowd sense — a zipped bag, a wallet in a front pocket — covers the practical risk. The real friction is persistence rather than threat: calls, offers and follow-ups, particularly in the tourist lanes. Women travellers generally report more attention here than in Europe. A guide changes that markedly, particularly in the evening, and is worth having for this part of Cairo more than for most.
More than the market itself, honestly. Al-Muizz street runs south through the heart of the medieval city past the complexes of Qalawun and Sultan Barquq and is pedestrianised in the evening; Bab Zuweila at its far end has minarets that can be climbed for the best view over the district. Al-Azhar mosque, founded in 970, is opposite. Beit al-Suhaymi, a seventeenth-century merchant house with courtyards and mashrabiya screens, is a few minutes north and is nearly always empty.
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