World City Guide

Shopping

Shopping can be great fun in Cairo, whether for an everyday souvenir or for something a little more valuable. Painted papyrus scrolls, often embellished with hieroglyphics, are popular and perhaps a little more tasteful than stuffed camels or models of the pyramids. Egypt may be rich in antiquities but it is not rich enough to supply the thousands of vendors who will sidle up to visitors offering a furtive glimpse of a ‘genuine antique’. In any case, it is illegal to export genuine antiquities without a licence.

Among the items that do make attractive legal souvenirs are jewellery, perfume, leather goods, brass and copper items, and herbs and spices. Almost anything can be found in the city’s main market, the Khan al-Khalili in Islamic Cairo. While this is on every tour itinerary and there will be hundreds of shopkeepers and touts to deal with on arrival, it is a vast place and most visitors do not venture into its interior, where the local people do their own shopping. Silks, jewellery, spices and hand-made gellibayas (long robes) make good purchases, as do perfumes from the Perfume Bazaar area. Many French perfume houses source their supplies from Egypt, and in the bazaar pure essential oils are for sale.

The Street of the Coppersmiths (An-Nahassin) is naturally the place to go to find a good choice of brass and copperware. Large engraved brass trays are popular and can be bought complete with a wooden stand to turn them into a coffee table. More easily transported are cups, bowls, plates and ornamental trays.

Gold and silver is widely available and not expensive, provided you bargain the price down a little (see below). However, local taste tends towards the gaudy or the mock-ancient, incorporating hieroglyphs, pharoah’s heads and scarab beetles, so it may be a hunt to find something more unusual. In addition to the Khan al-Khalili, the jewellery shops on Sharia Abdel Khalek Sarwat and on Sharia al-Muizz li-Din Allah are good bets. This latter is in the Souq as-Sagha, or Goldsmith’s Bazaar.

Normal opening hours for shops are Monday to Saturday from about 0900 to 2000 but in summer they will close between roughly 1230 and 1600. Tourist shops often stay open later.

Haggling is a way of life, especially in the bazaars, and visitors should not be afraid to try. Prices are inflated for visitors anyway but remember that it is meant to be fun – not a fight to the death. If the final price is between half and two-thirds of the original asking price, then both parties should be happy.