A Day at the Khan

Yesterday, we were off to spend a day in and near Kahn el Khalili Bazzar, the greatest souvenir shop on earth.  I'd show you a map, but then you could get out.  Suffice it to say that there are more shops, passages and alleyways than you will find in any carnival maze.

This square marks the main entrance to the area.




We always start off with a good shoeshine and somehow, no matter how we approach the area, our friend, Ali, will find us.  He did a thorough job of cleaning several weeks dust from my shoes and restoring them to top condition.  Look for him, he does a good job; he will be looking for you.


We had a particular item in mind.  I broke one of our Fathi Mahmoud coffee mugs and needed a replacement.  This is now an older style and I needed a particular design in that style.  Would I be able to find it?

I spotted a few pieces of the right style in a shop.  Soon we were in the third floor stockroom with our salesman totally devoted to the task.


With a couple of other ritual stops out of the way, we were soon on the other side of the Khan and strolling down Al-Muizz street, described in some detail last year.

This time, we stopped to tour the Egyptian Textile Museum - Admission cost is 20 Egyptian pounds for foreigners, 2 pounds for locals.  I wonder how that pricing scheme would go over in the States?


No photos are permitted so I only took this one on the left that shows what appears to be a fabric draped funerary bed similar to a gold one of King Tut in the National Museum.


The museum has some interesting exhibits of very old fabric from ancient times and some from Greek and Roman times as well.  It gets a definite thumbs up on Trip Advisor.

Elsewhere on Al-Muizz, we visited one of several antique shops in the area.  I never have seen a collection of stuff quite like this.  I was tempted by an old brass blowtorch, a picture of president(1956-70) Nasser and a telephone.




The street has an interesting collection of shops like this sewing machine repair shop.  My father was in that business for a couple of years so I'm always interested in seeing the bottom side of a sewing machine.


The water-pipes were lined up for sale and locals seemed more interested than others.


And there are several mosques on the street, of course.


And by the time we had returned to the antique shop, an artist had hung his paintings out by the street.