Haggling at the Khan El Khalili Bazaar in Cairo| Egypt Travel Blog: Day 09 (Part 60) 08D19

Cairo Khan El Khalili Bazaar Tour | The Most Famous Ancient Market in Egypt

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I started walking in the main lane of the Khan El-Khalili bazaar first to take some pictures and videos. Later, I would buy some miniature pyramids and T-shirts.

There was a bizarre variety of stores and products. I thought if I had time, I would spend 5-6 hours in the Khan El-Khalili bazaar going store by store, lane by lane.

While I walked, employees were calling to me from almost every store. Some of them were offering prices in dollars and shouting amazingly cheap deals. The amount of stuff and numbers of people browsing on the street were really amazing.

This place never sleeps. The more you go through the night, the more it gets crowded. I think this is a common pattern in the Middle East. People go out more in the night time than the day time. My guess is it has to do with the sweltering heat during the day. 

I was looking for miniature pyramids and T-shirts with hieroglyphics on them. This was the time to put my haggling skills to test. After hearing their prices, I offered prices so low that the first two stores told me I was being unreasonable. Then I tried a few more and had no luck. I thought they were asking too much, seeing me a foreigner.

One store had both T-shirts and a variety of colored pyramids I wanted and they were ready to haggle prices with me. After spending some time going back and forth on a total price, as I was buying good quantity, we agreed upon a number. They even wrapped those little stone pyramids, so they wouldn’t break on the flight home.

I was heading to the restaurant where our group would meet and have something to eat before leaving the Khan El-Khalili bazaar.

Khan El Khalili Bazaar in Cairo| Egypt Travel Blog: Day 09 (Part 59) 08D19

Cairo Khan El Khalili Bazaar | The Most Famous Ancient Market in Egypt

Egypt Travel Blog: 10 DAYS Egypt Explorer - Felucca Cruise & Red Sea

After visiting the Cairo Museum, we headed to the Khan El Khalili Bazaar located in the heart of Islamic Cairo, not far from the medieval walled city, the Saladin Citadel. We were asked if we wanted to visit the Saladin Citadel, but everyone passed on that. Most of us were too tired and wanted to go back to the hotel.

They say no trip to Cairo is complete without visiting the Khan El Khalili Bazaar. Merchants, both local and foreign, have been trading in the Khan El Khalili Bazaar since the 14th century. Khan El Khalili was originally built as a burial site. The burial site belonged to the Fatimid Caliphs and these were the people who founded Cairo in the 10th century.

Going to the Khan El-Khalili bazaar is like going back in time to an old Arab souk. It’s hard to think of something you can’t find in the bazaar. You will find almost anything you can think of. Colorful candles and lanterns, jewellery, perfumes, musical instruments, handicrafts, sweets, spices I never knew existed, statuettes, souvenirs, silver jewellery, t-shirts, galabiyyas, belly dancing costumes … what more do you want?

Here you can put your haggling skills to good use and you are expected to haggle. At some stores when I started with 1/3 price of what merchant asked for, they were looking at me like I was an alien!

Even if you don’t want to buy anything, walking through the alleys and experiencing a different world will make your Egypt trip worthwhile. It is possible to lose track of time and get lost in the maze of stores.

We were given an hour and a half to visit the bazaar and then we would meet at a restaurant to eat and have tea.

The Egyptian Museum in Cairo Tour | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 09 (Part 58) 08D20

The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities | The Egyptian Museum in Cairo Tour

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Our next stop was the Cairo Museum in downtown Cairo, Tahrir Square. If you only have a short amount of time, seeing the museum can be a daunting task. It has 120,000 artifacts that would take you 9 months to peruse if you spent a minute on each one.

Our guide gave us a tour of some of the items. The museum was so massive that I didn’t know what to photograph/video or what not to. I will describe the highlights of what I remember seeing.

- Tutankhamun’s Mask

- Statue of Khufu

- Statue of Khafra

- Statue of the Dwarf Seneb and his Family

- Amenhotep III and Tiye Colossal Statue

- Masks of Yuya and Thuya

- Merneptah Stele

Some of the statues and cages were all made of gold and for sure I had never seen so much gold in my life.

There were several floors, but I only visited 3 floors near the central area. I saw some animal mummies and there was also a display of daily necessities used by the Royals those days. I saw some flip-flops and sandals. Footwear existed and was invented in Egypt, but was worn only by Royals and rich people.

From here we would go to our last tour in Egypt, the open-market bazaar called Khan El Khalili.

Cairo Tour (Seven Churches in the Coptic District) | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 09 (Part 57) 08D20

The Church of St Sergius and Bacchus | This Is Where Jesus Lived in Egypt

Egypt Travel Blog: 10 DAYS Egypt Explorer - Felucca Cruise & Red Sea

We started our Cairo tour in the Coptic District where several churches and synagogues were located. The fascinating Church of St Sergius and Bacchus dates to the 4th Century AD. This is a historic place because there are stairs leading to another church underneath (the oldest Coptic Church in Egypt) where Joseph, Mary and Jesus lived when they were in Egypt. I saw the well from which Jesus drank water. The well is still preserved and sealed, but you can still see the water through the glass cover.

The church was a basilica design and had a nave and two side chapels. I saw an impressive carved wooden screen decorated in ivory and ebony separating the congregation from a small chapel.

The other places we visited here were the Hanging Church and the Synagogue of Ben Ezra. Located in a small backstreet, all these churches presented amazing architecture and beauty. The decorations inside them were awe inspiring. 

This peaceful place in the middle of Cairo felt like an oasis from the city’s hustle and bustle. There were so many historic places tucked into one location that I got confused while doing video trying to figure out which one was which.

From here, we would visit the Cairo Museum and end our trip visiting the Khan El-Khalili bazaar.

Caves Beach Resort, Hurghada to Cairo on Overnight Bus | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 9 (Part 56) 08D20

Overnight Bus to Cairo - Leaving the Caves Beach Resort | All-Inclusive Food & Drinks at The Caves Beach Resort, Hurghada

Egypt Travel Blog: 10 DAYS Egypt Explorer - Felucca Cruise & Red Sea

We left Hurghada Caves Beach Resort after 3:00 AM. We had a goodbye meeting yesterday, as some of our tour mates will head to Jordan and other countries and will not join us in Cairo. This always puzzles me; you meet some people for a short time, become very close with them, and then never see them again. However, we will have some new tour friends from here to Cairo.

The road from Hurghada to Cairo was full of contrast. Sometimes we were passing by the sea, sometimes desert, sometimes cities and villages. I noticed lots of upscale residential property developments by the sea that looked really nice.

Our bus was fuller than before because people from a separate group merged into ours. Most people slept on the bus, but I was up to see the roads and sceneries. We had a couple of stopovers at the service areas and I got out each time to stretch and take a stroll around the complex.

I didn’t notice any guard officers with us this time. My guess was this road was safer than the road we took from Cairo, so there was no need for extra protection.

We would start our Cairo tour around 10:00 and I will be leaving Cairo later today after midnight. I find it hard to believe that my Egypt trip is coming to an end.