Khan el-Khalili has operated without interruption since Sultan al-Ghuri rebuilt its caravanserais in 1511, anchoring a commercial district that predates the Ottoman conquest by three centuries. The bazaar occupies what was once the mausoleum complex of the Fatimid caliphs, demolished to make way for a trade hub connecting caravans from Asia, North Africa, and the Arabian Peninsula. Goldsmiths, silk merchants, and spice traders established workshops within its vaulted stone passages, creating a self-contained economy that survived Mamluk decline, Napoleon's invasion, and British occupation. Today the souq remains Cairo's commercial heart, a working market where artisans still hammer brass trays in open-front stalls and glassblowers shape perfume bottles using techniques unchanged since medieval guilds regulated every craft. The district extends beyond the central Khan into adjacent quarters—Nahhasin for metalwork, Ghouriya for textiles, Sagha for jewelry—each street preserving its historic specialization. Tourists navigate the same limestone alleyways that medieval merchants used, passing beneath Mamluk-era doorways and wooden mashrabiya screens that filter afternoon light into geometric patterns. A Cairo market tour through Khan el-Khalili typically includes the Al-Fishawi Café, operational since 1769, where servers pour mint tea from verdigris-stained copper pots, and the Sultan al-Ghuri complex, where a restored wikala (merchant inn) hosts Thursday Sufi performances in its stone courtyard. Private shopping experiences move beyond the tourist-facing brass and papyrus vendors into backstreet workshops—one metalsmith family has occupied the same stall since 1847, their ledger documenting five generations of orders for mosque lanterns and wedding trays. Street food walks incorporate stops at century-old koshari vendors and falafel carts operating from pre-dawn through the evening call to prayer. The district's architectural fabric records seven centuries of Cairo's building traditions. Bahri Mamluk gates with chevron stonework stand beside Ottoman-era sabils (public fountains), their facades inlaid with marble panels and Quranic inscriptions. Stone carvers still work in doorways cut during the Ayyubid period, repairing mashrabiya lattices for clients who arrive with heirloom patterns traced on translucent paper. Tour routes pass mosques where wooden minarets lean at angles that would alarm modern engineers but have stood since the fourteenth century, their foundations sunk into Fatimid rubble and Roman spoils.