Friday Photo: Cairo’s Friday Market

Today’s Friday photo is, appropriately enough, of Cairo’s Friday Market.

This is the biggest, baddest and maddest market in Cairo. It takes place every Friday underneath the autostrade near the Citadel, sandwiched between the Southern Cemetery and an area of Cairo called Khalifa.

Tens of thousands of people visit to seek out and buy… well, anything and everything. There’s food, clothing, live animals, household goods, bikes, antiques, and a whole host of junk scavenged by Cairo’s rubbish collectors, the Zabaleen. Except, one man’s junk is another man’s treasure, and there’s a roaring trade in such bizarre items as broken cassette tapes, bottle tops, and dead computer monitors.

There is even – bizarrely for Cairo – very open gambling, with people betting on dice and cards.

This is the kind of place where if you can name it, you can probably find it. Just make sure to get there early. Crowded is an understatement!