The Yemen Chronicles Part 7 Hadhramawt (Shibam)

A few days after flying to Aden, I was sitting in my other uncle/cousin's office (Abdul Aziz), he asked me if I'd like to fly to Seyoon for the day.. just to check out the sites. Once again I said 'yes please!'. I love my family!

Seyoon is a fairly large city in Hadhramawt, one of the larger governates of Southern Yemen. I was happy to see Seyoon, but even happier to see the nearby city of Shibam.. It is an old city, that has been the capital of Hadhramawt during various points in Yemen's history. Throughout it's history, it has been the commercial focul point of the nearby Wadi of Hadhramawt.

It is a very unique city in that it contains the FIRST EVER skyscrapers in the world!! Yes yes!! They were made from MUD and CLAY hundreds and HUNDREDS of years ago (amazing!).. some have up to 16 floors! Most of the ones standing today are about 4-500 years old.. the oldest existing building is said to have been built in 753 A.D. . The city has been burned and pillaged a few times.. rebuilt.. moved.. rebuilt.. flooded.. rebuilt.. razed and rebuilt.. Yemen is full of resilience. Enjoy the pictures.




Here's a picture I took on the flight from San'a to Seyoon.. In Hadhramawt the mountains have flat tops.. as opposed to the mountains in Northern Yemen.. if you remember those.



That block of buildings is the city of Shibam.. It was a fair bit larger a few hundred years ago. In the last hundred years or so the city suffered due to surrounding squabbling sultans.



We have just met our driver at the airport, I've just forgotten his name... and we're heading to Shibam.. it was about a 10 minute drive from Seyoon.. very close.



here it is..



Here's an old decrepit building in Shibam.. it's sadly falling apart. You can see in this picture that it is truly made from mud and clay..


We arrived early in the morning.. around 8 am .. so most of the people were still hitting their snooze buttons..



Notice the cool window frames.. Often one can determine the age of a house by looking at the design of its windows.



This early in the morning there were more goats than people walking around, and even the goats looked sleepy.. it explains why the place smelled funny.



The doors on most houses are full of carved designs.. I think there are some verses from the Qur'an on the top of this door.. There's also a date on the door, so one can have an idea of the age of the house. This one was about 200 hundred years old.. if I remember correctly.



More goats!! At the top of these houses there are flaps that are left open in the summer.. so wind circulates through the house and leaves the place feeling cooooool. In the winter months the doors at the top are closed so as to keep the heat in. It works really well due to the design of the houses.. Free air-conditioning! :)



I just found these lying on the side of an alleyway..



I like the balcony-type things at the top.



Yemenis also know how to drive cars well past their expiration date.

We only spent about an hour in Shibam walking around.. we couldnt do much since most of the people were snoozing..

We headed back to our 4x4 and headed to Tar'im. I'll post those pics soon.. tc.