Detailed painting of a bustling Middle Eastern street scene with people socializing outside a traditional cafe.

You will find it deep in the heart of old Cairo. It is in the labyrinths of the over 600-hundred-year-old Khan El-Khalili bazaar. It is the El Fishawy café. It forms a triangle with the Coptic neighbourhood and the City of the Dead. For over two hundred and fifty years; writers, politicians and ordinary men and women have come to this ahwa after work to meet friends, drink tea, smoke shisha, play backgammon or dominos, plan conspiracies or solve the mysteries of the universe. After all, this is Cairo, the acknowledged centre of the cosmos. Outside the café, tables line the alleyway. On the outside walls, are large mirrors, that have captured years of passionate conversations and detained them inside the borders of their intricately carved wooden frames. Large fans, hooked high on the walls, pretend to cool tensions and the café’s customers. Above the café, apartment dwellers try to dry their laundry on racks outside their windows. Old Moorish, blue and white tiles grace the floor like an elegant carpet. Vendors walk by offering their goods, trying to eke out a living. At the tables, an array of people are drinking tea and puffing on sheeshas, smoking flavoured tobacco. The smell of apple, grape, rose, banana, vanilla and mango perpetually permeated the air, scent marketing that had been creating memorable and engaging shopping experiences that increased sales and brand loyalty, since the café first opened its doors in 1797. See more