Egypt-Cairo

Al-Shataranj coffee house (ahwa), a popular meeting place where chess and domino players can chat smoking sheesha, the traditional water pipe. Cairo’s ahwa (the traditional coffeehouse) are for Cairo what the pub is to London or caffè to Rome. Once the ahwa was the main place for entairnement, a animated place where Cairo’s men socialised playing chess, backgammon or domino, reading newspapers or watching TV, drinking Turkish coffee and shai (tea) with mint or smoking a sheesha, the tradional waterpipe. Some ahwa are meeting places for people loving chess or remembering famous Egyptian singer Oum Kalthoum. Today Cairo is changed and everybody is just too busy to drink coffee in a ahwa, so western style coffee shops are much more than traditional ahwa.

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Filename: em2611202.jpg
Copyright: @ enrico martino
Image Size: 4256x2832 / 6.3MB; Al Shataranj Arab Arabic Islam Islamic africa ahwa chess city coffee house man men player sheesha tea house urban water pipe
Contained in galleries: Egypt - Cairo's traditional coffee houses

Al-Shataranj coffee house (ahwa), a popular meeting place where chess and domino players can chat smoking sheesha, the traditional water pipe. Cairo’s ahwa (the traditional coffeehouse) are for Cairo what the pub is to London or caffè to Rome. Once the ahwa was the main place for entairnement, a animated place where Cairo’s men socialised playing chess, backgammon or domino, reading newspapers or watching TV, drinking Turkish coffee and shai (tea) with mint or smoking a sheesha, the tradional waterpipe. Some ahwa are meeting places for people loving chess or remembering famous Egyptian singer Oum Kalthoum. Today Cairo is changed and everybody is just too busy to drink coffee in a ahwa, so western style coffee shops are much more than traditional ahwa.