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Published: December 28th 2006
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Collapsed mud brick houses
Houses in Wadi Hadramawt are often built using mud bricks. Often the houses collapse if they are not well taken care of. Yemen part II - Wadi Hadramawt
The word Wadi might be new for some people. It basically means riverbed. The riverbeds in eastern Yemen are dry for most of the year. But the precious little rainwater that does come gathers in the Wadis and therefor making them more suitable for agriculture than other land in this part of the country. Consequently people mostly live in or close by the Wadis and that makes them interesting for us to visit.
On the 25 th of December we took a flight from Sana'a in the west to Sayun in Wadi Hadramawt. When we arrived in Sayun a driver we organised from Sana'a stood there waiting for us. He took us first to the hotel and then for a trip to the highlight of our visit in the east - Shibam. Shibam is sometimes nicknamed "Manhattan of the Desert" or "Manhattan of Arabia". Shibam only covers a very small area but the houses are much higher than usually. Some of the houses are 10 stories high where as in the rest of Hadramawt you rarely see houses higher than 3 stories. The small area in combination with the unusually tall houses makes
Standing mud brick houses
Houses in Wadi Hadramawt. When the houses are standing the mud bricks seem to be working fine. the town resemble Manhattan a little bit. Strangely enough the houses, just like most houses in Wadi Hadramawt, are built using mud bricks. From what we understand the mud bricks are functional as long as they are dry. If they get wet they seem to dissolve quickly and the house might collapse. We have seen several collapsed houses in our days in Hadramawt.
We can't really understand the point in building such high houses from such a poor quality building material. But I guess there are advantages with it.
We really loved Shibam all three of us. It was a great experience to visit this town. But after a few hours there we were ready to go back to Sayun again.
The next day we went to a town called Tarim. It is a town with two interesting features - the town has several palaces, all built under a brief period in the beginning of the 20th century, and the town has 365 mosques. We walked around in the town for a while looking at a few of the mosques and some of the palaces. It was a nice town and we enjoyed it. But after two
Shibam
Shibam from ground level. hours we had seen enough and went on to the next town - 'Inat.
There is basically only one reason to visit 'Inat. In the local cemetary there are seven beautiful tombs. Unfortunately only muslims may enter the cemetary so we had to stay outside and take our photos.
All over Yemen it is the same by the way. In mosques, cemetaries, shrines and other religous sites only muslims are allowed to enter. That is a pity because muslim shrines are usually very beautiful. The islamic art is well known for it's rich details and tasteful colours. But to our great sadness we are not likely to see much of that on this journey.
The third and the last day in Wadi Hadramawt we decided to travel to another Wadi nearby, Wadi Dawan. In Wadi Dawan there is a town Named Al-Hajjarayn. You might say that Al-Hajjarayn is a sister town to Shibam. It too has higher than ususal houses. Here also the houses are build from mud bricks. The houses are not as high as the ones in Shibam therefor slightly less imposing structures. But what Al-HAjjarayn lack in imposing structures she has in setting. Al-HAjjarayn
Shibam
Shibam from ground level. is located on a cliffside so the views are simply breathtaking. We stood below the town and watched for a long time before we entered it and we lingered a little afterwards before we left.
When we stopped with the car outside Al-Hajjarayn I started talking to a man who just arrived in another car. It turned out he was a bedouin. Bedouin is a name for people who live in the desert often as nomads. The man was good looking so I asked if I could have a picture of him. Sure he said. I can even bring out the AK47 I have in the truck for a better picture if you like. I got a foto of him with the gun and everything.
He also took photo of me holding the gun but I am not going to show you that. I look like a fool.
The gun culture around here I find very interesting. It is perfectly natural for a person to carry one or more weapons of some sort. The all-time favourite is the AK 47 but also handguns are popular. But if someone want to buy for instance a handgranade or
Shibam
Shibam in a birds eye view. a SAM missile then they are also for sale in the local market.
Another thing that is a bit unusual here in Yemen is the chewing of khat. Almost all men chew khat. Khat is a mild drug that is banned in most countries in the world but legal, common and popular here in Yemen. It is a disgusting habit if you ask me and probably not a healthy one either. We even saw men chewing khat and driving car at the same time. It is definitely a bad habit to take drugs, legal or not, and then drive a car.
Today we took the bus from Sayun to Sana'a. When doing that we travelled through one of the more dodgy areas of Yemen. On the road there is a town named Marib. All westerners who go through Marib must have permission from the police authorities. This is not for making it diffucult but for safety reasons. In September this year a group of four French tourists were abducted from Marib and held prisoners for several weeks before they were set free again. Something I was rude enough to point out to a young French woman also travelling
Shibam
Shibam among the houses. with a bus. Ake is not always a very nice guy... When we had lunch break in Marib we tried to look as little as potential kidnap victims as possible. We seem to have succeeded well because we arrived safely in Sana'a in the afternoon.
Tomorrow we are hoping that we will be able to leave for Sa'da in the north of Yemen. More reprts on that later on.
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Enlightened
I'm not sure why one would consider rude sharing with a fellow traveller a factor of some import bearing upon their travel. The explanations and the photos together are a learning experience. I knew almost nothing about Yemen, and now, just a bit more. There was a time when N. Yemen was aligned with the west. I wonder if you see any evidence of the former alliances. So far, you've said almost nothing about the people (except for the bedouin) -- I'm thinking about Harvey's holiday card. I'm looking forward to more of this fascinating travelog. Btw, I didn't get the point of the "emergency" travel documents. Obviously, y'all made it in country. Take care.