The Kassala souq draws people from across eastern Sudan and across the Eritrean border for goods you will not see in this combination anywhere else: clay jebbana coffee pots, Rashaida silver jewellery, Beja straight swords, Eritrean spices, and stack after stack of the famous local fruit — particularly the small sweet bananas, mangoes, and grapefruit grown along the Gash river.
At the back of the main market is the women's market, the Souq an-Niswaan, which is the place to buy the clay jebbana and matching cups, the small basket-weave plates used to serve popcorn with coffee, and the dried herbs and spices that make the local coffee distinctive — ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, and sometimes clove.
The Rashaida nomads, who live in goatskin tents in the country around Kassala and are closely related to the Bedouin of Saudi Arabia, hold a small adjoining market for their own distinctive embroidered clothes and silverwork. Their veiled women do most of the metalwork themselves and are happy to discuss prices over a long process of tea.