Spices of Arabia

While there are areas of the Medina which are obviously intended for tourists, most of the area is local - housing and shops with cheap dresses, toys, makeup, walls of hanging shoes that look like torture to wear, and marvelous spice shops with rolled back sacks of spices - and each spice priced by the kilo. There are things that we don't use as well as the familiar - like hibiscus flowers dried whole, from which a drink is made, called something like Khakadoura. It is a glowing ruby red, and for a while I thought I was drinking a sweetened plum juice, as it is rich and tangy and very fruity.