On Sunday 6 of April, at least most Egyptians were totally astonished after seeing both Egyptian and French presidents walking in khan el khalili, since this area is one of the most overcrowded areas not only in Egypt but also in the whole world.
This area is full of; cafes, shops of souvenirs and mosques , which dates back to the Fatimid era, which means most of these places were erected around the year 969A.D.
It was once upon a time, the heart of the city and for the first time this city was called cairo . This year was the construction of a new capital in Egypt for Fatimid and in this place was the downtown, that’s why there is in this place the market of the city.
According to Islamic architecture, the downtown always contained a market and main mosque, as a result of fulfilling the needs of people in this place and to facilitate their lives.
Nowadays most of the tourists who visit Cairo have on their priorities to visit this place, because it is considered to be the oldest market in the world.!!!
Highly important to mention, some shops and cafes in this place are older than some countries in Europe, Asia and Africa. For example there is a café in this place called fishway café, which is now more than 227 years old!!!
Even Napoleon Bonaparte seated sometimes in this café smoking water pipes, talking with Egyptians in order to explore their mentality.
And later, in the same café, the regular guest was the Egyptian Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz, who wrote around 100 fictions, showing and analyzing the Egyptian society, during and after the second world war, and by year 1988, he was honored to get the best and most precious prize in the world, Nobel prize, and till now he is the only Arab writer who wined this prize.
There are in this area a great variety of shops for; species, gold, silver, copper, musical instruments, incense, belly dance suits, etc. This variety nowadays came as a result of the existence of workers and artists in this area since more than 1000 years old.
And still the core reason about the importance of this area, mosque of AL Hussein, the grandson of prophet Mohammed, who is believed that he is buried inside this mosque, most of Egyptians have a good relation to the family of the prophet even according to their tradition, when any Egyptian has a petition so he visit his cenotaph asking to declare his petition to al Hussein who will give support to people.
And on the other side of this mosque, there is another important mosque which is called Al Azhar, which was the central mosque of the city in 969a.d. And now the central mosque for Muslims Sunnites in the whole world.
The atmosphere in this area is very special after mentioning the above mentioned points, that is why it is a very promising tourist location, and most Cairo visitors like to visit this place and feel the magic and the beauty of Islamic architecture and decorations.