Cairo — Walking the Streets; Khan el-Khalili Souk (Bazaar)

Ursula loves souks, the mostly open-air bazaars (markets) in North Africa, the Middle East, and elsewhere in the Arabic world. I say mostly because there are exceptions. For instance, in Istanbul I’ve shown you the Grand and Egyptian souks, which are indoor affairs. So, this week and next I’m going to present two Cairo bazaars, beginning today with the Khan el-Khalili Souk.

Now, as one would image, you are never far from a mosque in Old Cairo. And Googe Maps isn’t exactly up-to-date with their Cairo street images. Google Image Search also wasn’t much help as I tried to figure out which horizontally striped mosque is depicted above, and searching for the tower in the first image of this article didn’t help either. All I can tell you is when you see these two structures, you’re near the souk. Once you arrive, you’ll find myriad bookstores, coffee shops, and other vendors plying their wares. Here’s a little photo gallery/slide show sampling of what you’ll find:

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