A man in Khan el Khalili strides past a shop selling prayer beads. Islamic prayer beads come in strings of 33 or 99 beads, for the 99 "names" or attributes of Allah. It is thought that prayer beads originated with the Hindus, were passed on to Buddhists, then to Muslims, and on to Christians who say that the Dominicans had the rosary revealed to them in the 1300's. Every religious group has a different number of beads and a slightly different pattern of usage, but the essential idea is the same, a way of reminding people of God during a busy day.
This is one of the tiny alleys that meander off the main square in front of the Hussein mosque in Khan el Khalili. There are some shops down them, but also residences.
The tops for the posts certainly look like spaceships up close, but they are based on the traditional designs on buildings in the area.
Since I'm still somewhat housebound I'm taking advantage of some marvelous photos that a houseguest, Kelly Anderson of New Zealand, took while visiting for six weeks. This is one that she got one evening when she went to see the sufi dancing at El Taz palace in Hussein. This is a free performance every Wednesday evening in a restored Mameluke palace in the Khan el Khalili area.
My friend Pat Canfield was in the area of Khan el Khalili not long ago for a tour of some newly renovated Mameluke buildings and took this shot in passing. While the building behind the girls is quite old, they are anything but. Some lovely photos of the places she visited can be seen on my Living In Egypt blog.
It's hard to capture the energy level of Khan el Khalili in a photograph, but I think that this one comes close. An overabundance of textures, colours, scents, sounds, people all come crashing down on you almost from the moment you enter.
I found this in a junk shop in Khan el Khalili. It was black but I could see that it was initially brass. There were three metal discs with designs carved into them that fit inside the circular face of the object. A hand, also engraved with designs fit onto a post so that it could allow the discs and a specially cut out disc of heavier weight brass rotate. My handyman at the farm cleaned everything and now we have this totally fascinating object that no one knows how to use.
An old glass chandelier in an antique shop in Khan el Khalili would only fit in one of the old villas with huge rooms. A modern apartment would be dwarfed.
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The mosque of Hussein is beautiful and peaceful most of the time. It faces a large square filled with sunlight and visitors marveling at the surroundings. Cafes line the square along the base of the Hussein Hotel and are usually filled with people from every part of the world enjoying a glass of tea or lunch. Yesterday evening someone dropped an explosive from a balcony overlooking one of these cafes and killed one French girl while injuring other visitors, French, Egyptian, and Saudi. The bustling peace of the square was shattered. I have visitors to Egypt staying with me and we will go to Hussein. We will visit the Khan. I refuse to allow horrible, misguided people to ruin this country.
Most of the farmers in my area rely on a traveling barber who comes around and shaves the men in the shade of a tree, while both men are sitting on the ground. There's a good deal of trust involved because the barber uses an old fashioned straight razor and the shave that he gives is amazingly close and clean. Most men shave about once a week. While visiting Khan el Khalili the other day, I spotted one of the men in an open area on the upper level of an old caravanseri having a shave with a traveling barber. Nice weather, friends wandering by, sunshine...what could be better?
One of my favourite foul and taameya restaurants, Chabrawi, in Khan el Khalili, displays a plate of boiled eggs baked in a taameya batter. Next to it on the left is a platter of deep fried cauliflower.
Egypt doesn't really have zoning laws or functioning building inspectors. Sometimes this leads to problems, like when a building collapses, but thankfully that doesn't happen all that often. What we do find is some extremely interesting and creative decoration schemes...but probably no worse than a giant moose or something. This restaurant is found in Khan el Khalili. I've never tried the food but I like the brass, wood and tile.
This is not a model of a rocket but a folded umbrella out in front of the mosque of Hussein in Khan el Khalili. The shape models a minaret and when opened the umbrellas provide shelter for the overflow from the mosque during prayer or for people in the plaza below. The umbrellas are a modern addition to a very old mosque but somehow don't violate the design.
An elderly Egyptian gentleman enjoys a cup of tea and the autumn sunshine at Fishawy, my favourite coffee shop in Cairo, next to some young tourists. Fishawy has been the classic Cairo coffee shop for many decades and at one time he probably would meet his friends there for a tea, some conversation and time out.
There is a tiny hole in the wall foul and ta'ameya (felafel) shop in Khan el Khalili, down a narrow alleyway from Hussein Square on your right as you are headed for the famous coffee shop Fishawy. I usually go upstairs on some of the world's steepest and smallest stairs to sit at one of the four tables above the shop for lunch, but today I was with a friend and we decided to sit outdoors with our sandwich. The menu is limited but the output is delicious. The patties of ta'ameya are fried in oil in a deep copper pan at the ground level of the restaurant. In the winter this warms the entire passageway, though it isn't so great in the summer.
Visitors to Khan el Khalili are usually so overwhelmed by the millions of tiny shops filled with everything from toys to jewelry that they don't look up from the walkways and roadsides. But the buildings in the area are wonderful old creations with marvelous features. These old wooden balconies over look the square in front of the mosque of Hussein. The odd little roofed room on the roof may well be an air vet letting the hot air of a Cairo summer escape from the rooms before.
Shade takes on new meaning in an Egyptian summer. Standing in the shade can reduce the heat by at least five degrees and if you can catch a bit of a breeze, even more. Gazing out of the darkness of a Khan el Khalili alley into the glare can make you appreciate the darkness of these medieval twists all the more.
There is an antique store in Khan el Khalili with the most marvelous painted ceilings and walls and some incredible chandeliers. They say that they are from old mosques. I don't know but they sure are something to see. They'd never fit in in my house.
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