Khan el-Khalili

Six centuries of bazaar, at its best after dark, on its own terms.

By day it is a tourist bazaar with tourist opening prices. After sunset it becomes what it has always been: a working market where Cairo shops, eats and argues, under lantern light that flatters everything.

The rules that change everything: agree prices before touching anything, drink the tea you are offered, and know that the honest lanes are two turns away from the main drag. A guide who takes no shop commission turns the whole place friendly.