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Khan El-Khalili Market
Khan El-Khalili Bazaar is the largest souk, or market, in Africa. Founded in 1382 ACE, the market developed at the juncture of a number of trading routes running from the Sudan to the Mediterranean, throughout North Africa and coming from Asia across the Sinai. Cairo is located where all these routes converge. Many of the caravans were destined for Alexandria and from there to Europe by sea.
As you stroll through this still medieval environment, absorbing the contemporary and historic sights and smells, know that you walk a path much traveled and documented, and much adored. The colorful market draws in the traveler, demanding plans be dropped as you submit to Khan El-Khalili's allure. Shopkeepers call you into their cramped and over-full stalls to view their myriad goods; browsing through the jewelry, spices, papyrus paintings, statuary, sandals, lutes, clothes, perfumes, and many other offerings, you enter a new world... a world where bright sunlight merges with deep shadows. The winding alleyways hide restaurants and coffee shops often with groups of men huddling around shishas (water pipes). The stalls and shops lean against each other like old friends along the miles of maze-like alleyways, dotted with eight hundred year old mosques and occasional 12th century synagogues and churches.
One of a long line of authors and historians writing on the subject, Egypt's Nobel Prize winner for Literature, Naguib Mahfouz, chose the Khan El-Khalili as the setting for his book Midaq Alley. As you follow the route taken by characters both historical and literary, you'll find the vibrant energy that the Khan El-Khalili exudes may open a portal to history. Yet you'll also find yourself very much in the present, as you debate a left or right turn, and ponder what new discovery lies just around the corner.
