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Shopping: Bazaars and markets
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The streets around Luxor Temple are infested with
tourist bazaars
whose salesmen use every trick in the book to lure you into their shops. Despite fierce competition, you must bargain hard for a good price, since merchants can rely upon fresh-off-the-plane tourists to pay way over the odds. Fixed-price shops are rare, but can provide a rough benchmark for bargaining at other places. Gold and silver are usually sold by weight and so prices should be roughly fixed; El Safa Bazar on Sharia Labaib Habachi is friendly and honest. As a rule, it should be cheaper to buy alabaster or papyrus on the west bank. The Nefertari Papyrus Institute is one of the few fixed-price shops on that side of the Nile. In Luxor, curio and carpet shops have long been driving hardware, spices and clothing stalls northwards up Sharia el-Birka, the traditional
souk
. On Tuesdays, there's a
fruit and veg market
there, and on Sharia el-Madina el-Minawra, near Television Street. Most non-tourist shops close for a
siesta
(2-5pm).
Luxor's weekly
livestock market
is smaller and less camel-oriented than the
Souk el-Gamal
at Darow, near Aswan, or Cairo's market at Bil'esh, but just as rough on the nerves of animal lovers. The name of the route to the site - Sharia es-Salakhana, "Slaughterhouse Street" - says it all. The market is held every Tuesday (7-11am) in the village of El-Hebel, 4km outside Luxor (?E6-7 by taxi). To reach El-Hebel by bicycle, follow Sharia Mustafa Kamel across the train tracks, turn right down Es-Salakhana and simply follow the stream of traffic. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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Egypt,
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