Dire Dawa's main open market, sprawling across several blocks of the Megala. The Saturday market is the largest in eastern Ethiopia — sellers come down from Harar and across from the Somali border to trade fruit, vegetables, charcoal, plastics, fabric, electronics smuggled from Djibouti, and, throughout the morning, fresh chat bundled in green banana leaves.
You will see Oromo farmers in traditional cotton, Somali women in long colourful dirac dresses, Hararis in embroidered shawls. The chat traders pack up by mid-afternoon as the city slows down for the long chew. Pickpockets work the crowd; carry only what you need.