New Trinkets in Old Spaces. Cairo's Khan al-Khalili and the Question of Authenticity
Résumé
The Khan al-Khalili is located in the heart of the historic city of Cairo near the great mosques of al-Hussein and al-Azhar, and adjacent to the working-class district of Gamaliyya. Though it changed extensively in the 19th and 20th centuries, it is considered the oldest market in Cairo and a symbolic place of the old city that widely became known through the eponymous novel by Naguib Mahfouz. A tour of the market, presented as an archetype of an oriental market, is a main attraction for tourists in Cairo. It has become a site emblematic of the future of mass tourism in Egypt, and it was, as a result, the target of two terrorist attacks, one in 2005 and one in 2009. Composed of a thousand shops facing the street mostly dedicated to sales, the Khan is a dense commercial area where goldsmiths and jewelers dominate. Activities that were formerly present are today increasing, as are new bazaars with stalls filled with diverse products for tourists. At the geographic crossroads of districts specializing in various types of production and sales (textile, copper, aluminum, marquetry, etc.), the Khan al-Khalili is also an illustration and a showcase of the trends and evolution of the old central districts of Cairo, of competition and the dynamics of economic activities, and their numerous translations in the metamorphosis of the urban landscape. Lastly, the Khan al-Khalili has become a model and a sort of "label", the toponym being used to describe a number of shops or modern shopping centers, elsewhere in Cairo or in Egypt.
Domaines
Géographie
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