A-maze-ing Khan!
It's a crazy place! Crowded, busy, noisy, intriguing and fabulous. And you cannot say you visited Cairo, unless you visited Khan El Khalili, says Farzana Contractor, with a happy smile. With the kind of rumours and feedback one gets, you couldn't be blamed  for being skeptical about shopping at Khan El Khalili, though I can tell you nothing would keep me away from such an exciting souk. I mean, so what if you hear it's a pick pocket's paradise or that it's a tourist's trap, it's the Khan, a market dating back to over six hundred years ago. Just walking through its numerous alleys, going under the archways, connecting from one lane to another is like pure romance. Even parts of the paving stone make you realize you are walking on history. I loved it and spent four hours the first time I went there and two the second and I stayed in Cairo for three days, so you know what I mean.  The Khan, as it is called by the locals is more than just a market place. Built by the Emir, Djaharks el- Khalili, in 1382, it established Cairo as a major center of trade. The bazaar grew around the several Khans, also known as Wikalas or Caravaserai, which earlier served as both warehouses and lodgings for travelling merchant caravans. So what do you find at Egypt's most famous market? Everything under the sun, really. Hats, T shirts, textiles, bedspreads, scarves, shoes, perfumes, music, junk/ gold/ silver/ diamond jewellery, rugs, carpets, brass and copper objets d'art, local food, traditional gowns, spices, belly dancing outfits, even needles and all kinds of machines.  It addition to the thousands of shops (4,000?) there are many mosques tucked away in the area and if you happen to be around here during prayer time you will hear the muezzin's call winding through it's many alleys. And soon enough the locals will leave their shops to go across to one of them and bow in namaaz before Allah. Two of Cairo's most revered mosques are in this vicinity. The earliest, Al Azhar, founded in AD 970, which also has a university established in AD 988. At one time the mosque itself was one of the world's most pre-eminent centres of learning drawing scholars from Europe and across the Arab world.  The other is Sayyidna al-Hussein, situated in the Midan Hussein where all taxi drivers drop people who come to visit the Khan. This is the holiest site in Cairo. It is said to contain the buried head of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. Built in 1870 on the site of a 12th century mosque, it is off limits for non-muslims.As you enter the market from the Midan Hussein square, situated between these two venerated mosques you encounter many small eateries. The square was a focal point of medieval Cairo and continues to be so today, particularly during feasts and Ramadan evenings. At these times the midan is crowded with people, bright lights, loud music. In any case at any given time you will find hordes of tourists and locals  at the outdoor seating of these ahwas, eating falafels and meat kebabs.I was no exception. And in grand style I sat at one of these and got ripped off. Paid $20, for a plate of something. And even as I paid up I knew I was being cheated. The funny thing is, the official guide with me helped them cheat me, but c'est la vie and I didn't mind paying the price of being a gullible tourist, happens to the best of us! Though in a funny turn of events I actually got back the money the next day. As I entered through an alley from here, I stumbled upon El Fishawi Café or the Café of Mirrors. Once a meeting place for local artists, it is still a major attraction for the  intelligentsia and is frequented by the Nobel Award winner, Naguib Mahfouz, one of Egypt's most renowned author. The coffee here is sweet and strong, alternatively you can sit and puff at a shisha. Beware it's not as innocent as it is made out to be, you can get intoxicated. This café is said to be running non-stop for the past two hundred years for 24 hours a day, some record, that!The next day I returned and headed straight towards Khan El Khalili, a restaurant under the Mena House management. Now here is an experience not to missed. An old world restaurant in an old world cave-like souk. It's charming. With waiters dressed in silken finery with fez caps complete. They even polish your shoes while you eat your lunch or dinner. The mosaic flooring took my breath away as did the fare. Ask and you shall receive. The menu is extensive.  I, of course stuck to the local cuisine: Tabbouleh, Tahina, Mombar (fried sausage filled with an aromatic mix of rice and oriental spices), Bamya and Badistan Tagen (fried eggplant with minced meat), for dessert, my favourite Omm Aly, baked puff pastry, cream, raisins, nuts and milk. Khan El Khalili in the Khan is a perfect place to indulge in a slow meal, relax, rest your tired feet and then go out and resume your shopping expedition. So what did I fill my bags with? Little actually, but precious stuff. My friend and guide who joined me post my lunch, Poonam Malhotra is as good as a local now, having lived there since the past four years. She took me directly to her favourite haunt where I was left gasping. At a bargain I was able to pick up exquisite silver jewellery with Arabic inscription in gold. In addition I also bought tiny little fragile perfume bottles over which I went absolutely bananas! Two dozen pretty colourful perfume vials, with gold designs on them for all the girls in my office returned home with me, safely wrapped in cottonand bubble paper. I almost bought a local drum and then left it back, cumbersome, besides you have to leave something back to return again, right? |
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