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| Nabi Daniel street |
If you think bookstores are boring, you’ve never walked down “Nabi Daniel Street”in Alexandria.It’s not just a place where books are sold it’s where stories are lived, where religions meet, and where one man’s table of secondhand novels could change the way you see the world.One of those men is “Abdelhalim”, a bookseller who has seen this street evolve from piles of books on the ground to neat rows of shops. And his story? It’s just as fascinating as the books he sells.
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| Abdelhalim "Book seller" |
When Books Lived in Metal Boxes
“Back in the 1990s, we didn’t have these shops,” Abdelhalim tells me, standing proudly in front of his stall. “We used to sell books on the ground, or inside metal boxes. That’s how it started.”
Imagine it: books stacked under the sun, with sellers calling out their prices and buyers digging through old pages like treasure hunters. It was messy. It was crowded. But it was magic.
And then, everything changed.
“A year and three months ago, they made us move into organized stalls,” he says, pointing at the tidy row of identical bookshops behind him. “It’s cleaner now but the old days had a different spirit.”
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| The identical bookshops in Nabi Daniel |
A Street Where Faith Walks Side by Side
There’s something special about Nabi Daniel Street. It’s not just the books. It’s the feeling that this place holds something deeper.Look around and you’ll see it a "mosque", a "church", and a "synagogue", all standing just meters apart. Not many streets in the world can say that.“This street brings peace,” Abdelhalim says. “Here, we’re not just selling books. We’re sharing space, faith, and respect.”That quiet harmony flows into the market itself. Shoppers smile at each other. Sellers chat like old friends. Whether you're a Muslim, Christian, Jew or just a curious reader there’s a place for you here.
More Than a Market
Nabi Daniel isn’t like your usual bookstore. The books here have "character" they’re used, sometimes scribbled in, sometimes carrying secrets from another generation.You might find a rare novel from the ‘60s, a banned political book, or a dusty biography with a handwritten note inside. You never know what you’ll get and that’s the fun of it.And if you’re lucky enough to stop at Abdelhalim’s stall, he won’t just sell you a book. He’ll tell you where it came from. Who read it before. Why it matters.“We don’t sell just paper,” he says, handing a copy of an old Naguib Mahfouz novel to a young customer. “We sell stories. We sell history.”
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| A glimpse into the books on sale |
Still Standing in the Digital Age
With everything going digital books, news, even lectures you might think places like Nabi Daniel would disappear. But the truth is, people are still coming.Young readers. TikTok creators. Students from Cairo. Even tourists with their cameras out.
Why?
Because here, buying a book is more than clicking “Add to Cart.” It’s an experience. It’s a conversation. It’s something you "feel".
The Street Writes On
Nabi Daniel Street may have changed on the outside, but its soul is still strong. Sellers like Abdelhalim are keeping it alive one story, one book, one smile at a time.
So next time you’re in Alexandria, take a turn off the usual path. Head down to Nabi Daniel. Flip through a book. Talk to a seller. You might just find more than you were looking for.
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| The end of my visit |