Why buy vegetables when you could buy camels?

 

Yesterday I set out on a long anticipated trip to… the camel market! The souq al gamal (camel market in Arabic) is the largest camel market in Cairo, located in the town of Birqash, a small village on the outskirts of the desert, about 35 km northwest of Cairo.  We read that the market it at its best between 8 and 10 am so we set out in a taxi bright and early.

Once at the market it was, as expected, a sea of men and well, camels. Within the first few minutes it was clear that I was the only female there.  Typical. As for the market itself, it was quite a sight as hundreds of camels were gathered in the same place. The camels that end up at the Birqash market are first brought up the Forty Days Road from western Sudan to be sold at a market in Daraw, located in upper Egypt (called upper Egypt even though it is technically southern Egypt as the Nile flows south) close to the border with Sudan.  According to one man we spoke to, it is typical for the camels to be walked the entire road aka for forty miles. Yikes! For the camels not sold in Daraw, they are trucked up to Birqash.  While I would like to think that all camels gallivant through the Sahara, occasionally holding a tourist or two, these camels are primarily bought to be eaten.

The scene was also not for the faint of heart. The camel sellers continuously beat their camels to keep them in line.  In the video below, the man in the back is auctioning off the camel in the center of the group.  I don't know how the auctioning works exactly, but I think this one went for around 7,000 pounds (approximately $1,200).  The prices seemed to range between 5,000 and 7,000 pounds.

Once the camels are sold they are dragged and hit with sticks (very much against their will) into the trucks that will transport them elsewhere.  While this process was much too unsettling for me to watch, the result is quite humorous as you casually see camel heads popping out of the backs of trucks on the roads to and from the market.

Sold camel hanging out in a truck

While the men and boys with sticks continually beat the camels to move where they want or stay in the same place, the camels still manage to run away here or there.  Unfortunately camels are not concerned with where they are running and I had to be pulled out of the way a few times to avoid being trampled.

Tyler, one of the guys I went with, was speaking to the man standing next to him during one of the auctions.  The man questioned why we were at the camel market at all since most tourists want to come to Egypt to ride a camel for a few minutes then go home. He may have been joking, (sometimes hard to tell in another language) but he also asked if Tyler was a spy.  I suppose it is odd for Egyptians to see foreigners at a market that is very normal for them, snapping away at the spectacle. But personally, I would take seeing camels bought in bulk at a market in the village over a camel ride at the Pyramids any day.  Also, what kind of bizarre spies would we be that we are checking up on the ins and outs of camel sales?

Camel waiting to be sold. Their left thighs and calves are tied together to prevent them from running away.

Quick update: As I write I am sitting by the TV downstairs in my hostel and watching the worst violence in Tahrir since the Maspero incidents. Right now I only know that protesters are injured and there was a good amount of tear gas and rubber bullets shot by the police. However, it appears as though violence is calming down.  Eerie how calm the rest of Cairo seems blocks away from the chaos.

All is well as usual on the island.

-jill