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CHAPTER V
The Bazars of Cairo: the most Picturesque in the
World
FEW
of the brainless rich who go to Cairo for the
hotel and club life, and hardly realise that they
are in Egypt, fail to visit the bazars. They talk a c^ood
deal about the bazars, but they only see one little bit of
them, and that so demoralised by foreigners that if it were
not for the old-world gateways of the /v'//au put up by Ismail
Pasha, you might think that you were not in the bazars
at Cairo but at a Cairene bazar at the Earl's Court Exhibi-
tion. The Khan-el-Khalil is only one corner of the bazars,
and the most interesting parts of the bazars to the kodaker
and student of native life are right at the other end, near
the Bab-es-Zuweyla.
The best way to approach the gloriously Oriental bazars
of Cairo is from the Sharia Mohammed Ali. Go by the
tramway which passes the Continental Hotel, or drive, to the
corner of the Sharia Scrugiya, which will be described in
the chapter on native streets. You are surrounded by really
nativ^e shops immediately, and pass mosques, Jiaviniams
(baths), and Dervish fekkiyas in swift procession, until the
two sides of the street almost meeting overhead warn you
that you have reached the Tentmakers' Bazar, through
lovely lines of mosques and minarets and old palaces with
meshrebiya'd oriels. It is always cool and dark and
picturesque in the Tentmakers' ISazar, just the right environment
for the gay awnings and saddle-cloths and leather
work that are made in its tiny shops. One of the great
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