How to Find the Tentmakers

Roughly speaking, this is the location of the Khan el-Khalili, or Tourist Bazaar of Cairo. It's where you will find almost all the souvenir shops in Cairo. It is usually a lively shopping district, densely packed with foreign tourists and Egyptian shop owners.

These beautiful minarets stand tall over the city skyline, and can guide you to the Tentmaker's from a distance.

Note the shadows that have been highlighted to the north within this shape - that is the shape of the two towers. There is an interesting little museum inside the towers as well, and the panoramic view from the top is amazing. Try to be there just before the call to prayer sings across Cairo!

This is the Khan Khayamiya, or Street of the Tentmakers. There are dozens of tiny stalls lining both sides of this busy but unpaved street, all of which sell beautiful hand-stitched appliqued textiles. These range from bedsheets and room dividers to wall hangings and cushion covers.

They are an endangered legacy of an ancient craft tradition unique to Egypt, that now faces extinction due to competing mass-printed fabrics imported from India.

The sewers are highly skilled crafts people. Best of all, shop owners in this street do not try to rip tourists off with the insanely exaggerated prices typically seen in the Khan el-Khalili, or Tourist Market, to the North.

Because very few tourists visit this area, compared to the Khan, it is much safer to explore the nearby streets. This is the "real" Old Cairo, and not the kind of place you will find on package tours!

Ask a Taxi to take you to "Bab UL-Kulk". Most of them should know where it is. (You could drive to Bab Zweylah or the Khan Khiyyamiya, but most of Cairo's taxi drivers do not know where they are).

From here, walk east along a street full of diverse local businesses. These include street food stalls, an apothecary for medicinal herbs, woodworkers, tea houses, marble carvers, tinsmiths, and beautiful small mosques.

It will take about twenty minutes to reach the Tentmakers if you walk slowly and enjoy exploring, or five if you run while dodging the busy pedestrian traffic, slow-moving vehicles, and horse-drawn carts!

One of the most impressive Mosques of Cairo. A useful landmark for both the Khan el-Khalili and the Tentmaker's, which is about a kilometre south-west from here.

A colourful local market stocked with local produce.

Do not expect western-style shiny supermarket vegetables in plastic wrapping. Everything here is grown locally, transported by hand, and seasonally variable.

Unmarked business on a small street that runs parallel to the El Motaz.

This is the only toilet currently near the Tentmaker's Khan. It is a clean, new, squat toilet. This is normal for Egypt, but it is well-maintained. Please provide a tip for Mohammed Sa'ad, the caretaker.

Interesting street of local craftsmen. Tombstones, marble work, ladders, pastries, coffee shops, an extraordinary spice shop / apothecary, carpenters, tinsmiths, ancient mosques, etc. Well worth a slow meander, poking your head into rooms as you go.