The Camel Market at Birqash: Where Camels Meet Plain-Clothes Cops

My friends Allyson, Anne and I decided to visit the Camel Market at Birqash to see where ALL the camels came from.  It is located about 45 minutes outside of Cairo, so it was a great opportunity to view the country side.  To reach the WAY off the beaten path place, we took a taxi part of the way andd then rented  a mini-bus to get us the last few miles. 

Now you hear Camel Market and you think camels, right?  Wrong.  The entrance to the Camel Market was packed with people buying and selling oxen.  Go figure.  Once we skirted by the ox people and got into the market proper we found what we had been searching for - the camels!  Momma camels, Daddy camels, Baby camels, complaining teenage camels - all milling around, eating , sleeping and hanging out.  After a little while of "oh, it's so cute. I want one."  and "look at that those over there.  They're friends."  we started to notice a guy following us around at a discrete, yet rather close, distance.  After us attempting to eye him secretly (which I am sure he picked up on right away), we noticed a very large riffle positioned at his side.  The three white girls at the nearly all male Egyptian camel market had attracted our very own plain-clothes cop to follow us around and make sure nothing happened to the foolish "tourists."  Little did he know we were knowledgable, spunky, determined Egyptology students who had damned Egyptian residency visas.  Needless to say, it was quite an exciting day.  And we finally got to see where ALL the camels came from.  Next time one of those annoying hagglers at Giza comes over shouting "Good camel.  Nice camel.  You ride camel."  We can shout back "Aaha, Birqash."