A trip to the 'Friday Market' in Cairo, Egypt..video

A trip to the 'Friday Market' in Cairo, Egypt..video

The recent bombing of one of Cairo’s most famous landmarks, Khan al-khalili, did not seem to bother other ex-pats nearly as much as it bothered me. Call it paranoia or a healthy desire to stay out of harm’s way, I haven’t been able to bring myself to go to the souk since the bombing. Luckily, I don’t need to visit the tourist oriented market when Cairo brims with more authentic alternatives.

The Souk el-Gomaa (Friday Market), under the El-Tonsi bridge, in the City of the Dead is by far the best glimpse into shopping in Egypt, the way the locals do it. Hawking everything and anything, the market sells antique furniture, broken computer screens, snakes, dogs, watches, cell phone batteries and probably anything else second-hand (rumored: stolen) you can imagine. Egyptians come from all over the city to buy whatever they need at the one-stop, massive-shop.

The recent bombing of one of Cairo’s most famous landmarks, Khan al-khalili, did not seem to bother other ex-pats nearly as much as it bothered me. Call it paranoia or a healthy desire to stay out of harm’s way, I haven’t been able to bring myself to go to the souk since the bombing. Luckily, I don’t need to visit the tourist oriented market when Cairo brims with more authentic alternatives.

The Souk el-Gomaa (Friday Market), under the El-Tonsi bridge, in the City of the Dead is by far the best glimpse into shopping in Egypt, the way the locals do it. Hawking everything and anything, the market sells antique furniture, broken computer screens, snakes, dogs, watches, cell phone batteries and probably anything else second-hand (rumored: stolen) you can imagine. Egyptians come from all over the city to buy whatever they need at the one-stop, massive-shop.

The sprawling souk is easily accessible by taxi, the way I reached it on Friday morning with a few friends.  We arrived at 10, piling out of the taxi into the narrow lanes to be immediately surrounded by stalls of t-shirts, jeans, and shoes. The first part of the market sells new clothes for a fraction of the store price, but don’t expect the knock-off designer jeans of Asian markets, instead, this is a front row seat to Egyptian men’s fashion-- tight jeans and flashy neon t-shirts, complete with shiny black belts.

Sellers promote their wares any way they can: drums bang, music blasts from hidden speakers, men yell into megaphones and grab your arm as shoppers flood the lanes. If you don’t hold your ground, it’s easy to be swept away by the hurried mob.

The sprawling market is more organized than it first appears, grouped into sections of similar items. After the new clothes came stands upon stands of used shoes. Then, the highlight of the morning, the pet market. Exotic fish, lizards, and snakes, gave way to cages of parakeets and canaries, who chirped at the passersby, while red-eyed hawks spread their wings in attempts to escape their tiny cages.

Wooden crates crammed with tortoises on lettuce leaves stood one on top of the other. The opening quote on a small tortoise was 50 Egyptian pounds, a canary: 92le and a snake: 30le (1USD ~ 5.5le, this could probably be negotiated down to roughly half the initial price depending on the skill and patience of the bargainer).

After the pet section, it was used-goods city. Stalls of hanging scooters next to toilets sans-seat, across from doorknobs resting on bed sheets alongside dead batteries. Decadent chandeliers suspended above cracked porcelain China.

If you were looking for something, you would find it. If you were looking for nothing, you could find anything. After our 3 hour excursion, I ended up with a broken pocket watch and a wallet. My friends with jewelry, old photographs, a pocketbook, a portrait of Gamal Nasser, and used books. If you are interested in seeing how Egyptians really shop, hunting for unusual bargains, can stand crowds, and have an aversion to bombs, there’s nowhere in Cairo like the Souk el-Gomaa.

Friday Market in Cairo, Egypt from elqol news on Vimeo.