Al Khyiamia (Tent Makers Bazaar)
Covered medieval market where artisans hand-stitch colorful appliqué tent cloth beside a Fatimid city gate.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Al Khyiamia, Cairo's Street of the Tentmakers, follows artisan Gamal el-Zahabi, still stitching in the same shop he started at age twelve, in a market built beside the Fatimid gate of Bab Zuweila in the 1600s. It traces the craft of hand-stitched appliqué back to workshops that once sewed the Kiswah, the cloth draped over the Kaaba in Mecca, and follows the trade's decline after cheap machine-printed hangings arrived and a 1992 earthquake cracked the buildings above the lane. Listen for the sound of the needle against heavy cotton as you pass under the latticed windows lining both sides.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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