Cairo Local Custom Tips by sue_stone

Whirling Dervish

A Whirling Dervish is a unique dance - a "religious ceremony transcending into performing art".

It is a dance performed by an order of the Islamic faith, and it involves the dancer whirling around and around continuously for minutes.

The dancer starts off slowly turning and gets faster as the music picks up pace. They spin and spin, lifting parts of their costumes up as they go.

It goes on for so long that you start to feel dizzy just watching - you wait with baited breath for them to fall over.....but they don't...they keep spinning and whirling.

Amazing!

Shisha Anyone!?

A very popular custom in Egypt is smoking a shisha.

A shisha is a small packet containing a rolled tobacco leaf, a small amount of molasses, and some apple flavour.

This is put in a type of 'water pipe' under a burning charcoal. You then inhale and the smoke passes through the water, cooling it.
The cooled smoke picks up the flavours of the shisha.

There are shisha parlours all over the place where people (mainly men) get together with friends for a quiet smoke and a Turkish coffee.

Alex visited one of the most popular parlours in Cairo, located in the Khan al-Khali markets.

I didn't try it, but wish I had.