A bazaar since 1382, half of it selling alabaster cats to visitors and half of it selling gold and spices to Cairo.
A khan is a caravanserai — a merchants’ inn with storage below and rooms above — and this one was built in 1382 by Amir Jaharkas al-Khalili on the site of a Fatimid cemetery, whose bones he had removed and dumped, which caused a scandal at the time.
It has been a market ever since. Parts of the fabric are fourteenth and fifteenth century, including gates and vaults, though most of what you walk through is later.
The two bazaars
The tourist section, around the main entrance opposite al-Azhar, sells papyrus, alabaster, pyramids in every material, cartouches, sheesha pipes, scarabs and t-shirts. Prices open at several times what anyone will pay, hassle is constant, and the quality is mostly poor.
The working section, deeper in, is where Cairo shops. The goldsmiths’ quarter around Sagha; the coppersmiths hammering trays; spice merchants with sacks of cumin, hibiscus, dried mint and saffron; perfume and oud sellers; the fabric and tentmakers’ lanes to the south.
The difference between them is about four minutes’ walk and an enormous difference in price and pleasantness.
Bargaining
Expected everywhere and part of the transaction rather than a conflict.
The convention: ask the price, look unimpressed, offer around a third, settle somewhere near half. Do it with good humour. Being prepared to walk away is the whole of your leverage and is entirely normal — you will frequently be called back.
If you have no intention of buying, do not start negotiating; agreeing a price and then leaving is genuinely rude.
Gold and silver are sold by weight at a posted daily rate plus a making charge, so the negotiable part is the workmanship, exactly as in Dubai.
What is worth buying
Spices, particularly hibiscus, cumin and dried mint. Copper and brass from the coppersmiths, where you can watch it being made. Cotton — Egyptian long-staple cotton is genuinely good and genuinely cheap. Inlaid wood, mother-of-pearl boxes and backgammon boards. Perfume oils and oud. Shisha pipes, if you can get one home.
Papyrus is almost always banana leaf. Real papyrus is stiffer, has a visible cross-woven grain and does not crack when rolled. It costs more.
Alabaster is often gypsum. Hold it to the light: real alabaster is translucent.
Hours
Most shops open mid-morning, close for a period in the afternoon, and reopen until late. Fridays many close for midday prayers and reopen after.
Evening is the best time — cooler, busier, and the lanes lit.
Practicalities
Cash, in Egyptian pounds. Some larger shops take cards.
Keep valuables secure in the crowds. The bazaar is safe; pickpocketing exists as in any dense market.
El Fishawy, the 1797 coffeehouse, is in the middle of it and is the place to sit down.
