Aswan Market

Sharia el-Souq is Aswan's great market street — a long, covered lane running through the city centre, heaped with spices, dried hibiscus, henna, baskets and Nubian crafts in every colour. The air is thick with cumin, cinnamon and karkade, and the stalls spill over with beaded jewellery, scarves and carved trinkets.

Gentler and less frantic than Cairo's Khan el-Khalili, it's a market you can actually enjoy browsing, especially in the cool of evening when locals shop and the lamps come on. Sample the vivid mounds of hibiscus that make Aswan's signature crimson tea, haggle warmly for a scarf, and soak up one of Upper Egypt's most atmospheric streets.