Tanoura show
Whirling Sufi dance.
Sailko — CC BY 3.0 · Casual Builder — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Sailko — CC BY 3.0 · Sailko — CC BY 3.0 · Casual Builder — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Sailko — CC BY 3.0 · Sailko — CC BY 3.0 · Sailko — CC BY 3.0
A Mamluk merchants' inn built by Sultan Qansuh al-Ghuri in 1504 and 1505, counted among the most beautiful and best-preserved caravanserais left in Cairo. A wikala was where merchants lodged, stored their goods and struck their deals, with storerooms on the ground floor and living rooms on the upper floors. The building is arranged around a wide open courtyard overlooked by its upper storeys with their wooden mashrabiya screens and orderly windows, and today it is an arts and crafts centre whose workshops and galleries fill the old rooms. Its best-known draw is the evening tanoura folk show by the Tanoura Heritage troupe, with Sufi chanting and dancers who whirl for long minutes without stopping in their heavy, colourful skirts, in the wikala's courtyard or the neighbouring al-Ghuri dome. The show runs on set days of the week and the box office sells tickets a while before it starts, so come early. A daytime visit to the wikala costs a foreigner about a hundred Egyptian pounds, and the evening show is ticketed separately. It stands on al-Azhar Street between al-Azhar Mosque and al-Muizz Street.
Whirling Sufi dance.
Screens around a wide court.
Crafts in old rooms.
Al-Azhar Street, near the al-Ghuri complex and al-Azhar Mosque
Al-Azhar MosqueThe oldest working university in the world and one of the oldest mosques in Egyp3 minutes walk4.7
Khan el-KhaliliCairo's great bazaar since the fourteenth century, and still a working market ra4 minutes walk4.3
Al-Hussein MosqueOne of the holiest and best-loved mosques in Egypt, on al-Hussein Square at the 4 minutes walk
Bab ZuweilaOne of three surviving gates of the Fatimid city wall, standing at the southern 5 minutes walk4.6
Al-Muizz StreetA single street said to hold the greatest concentration of Islamic architecture 7 minutes walk4.5In the evening on set days of the week that sometimes change, so check the schedule at the wikala or with tour operators, and arrive early to buy a ticket.