Egypt-Cairo

El Shems, a traditional tea and coffee house (ahwa) with his incredible kitsch furnishing. A waiter preparing shesha (water pipes). 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: em2611136.jpg
Copyright: @ enrico martino
Image Size: 4256x2832 / 7.4MB; Arab Arabic El Shems Islam Islamic africa ahwa city coffee house lighting man men sheesha tea house urban waiter water pipe
Contained in galleries: Egypt - Cairo's traditional coffee houses

El Shems, a traditional tea and coffee house (ahwa) with his incredible kitsch furnishing. A waiter preparing shesha (water pipes). 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.