Animal & Bird Market

Located behind the colourful Wholesale Market (selling wholesale fruit, vegetables, meat and fish), this market may be of interest to anyone who hasn't seen pink, yellow and lime green chicks before. Why the birds are dyed is a mystery of the region. Fortunately, they leave the spotted guinea fowl, ring-necked parakeets, African greys and cut-throat zebra finches untinged - possibly because the plumage of the rows and rows of domestic birds is outrageous enough already.

The day before an eid (Islamic feast), the market is heaving with goat-buyers, camel-traders and sheep-shoppers, all looking for a suitable eid supper, but the animals are well shaded and watered, and respect for the livestock is shown by much inspection of teeth and smoothing of coats. It's worth visiting the market just for the sideshows: cockerels unbagged in a flourish, children tugging at rabbit ears, hooded peregrines balancing on a white-thobed arm and women in black picking their way through the mayhem of one of the great bazaars of modern times - repeated in similar scenes from Yemen to Kuwait.