Shibam - finally

After a few more hours of driving in the highlands - which looked a lot like the surface of the moon - the road took this crazy drop to the bottom of the Wadi (valley). We snaked through ancient villages and surprisingly lush farmlands; it was a beautiful drive.








Along the way we met these camels, who were far more friendly than the camels around our place.

We spent the next three nights at a gorgeous guest house beside the city wall, which was our base from which we took day-trips to nearby towns, etc.






And as for Shibam itself, here it is. The whole place is made of mud - the wall, the houses, everything. A lot of those buildings are seven stories tall and over five hundred years old! It's an incredible example of early urban planning. Many of the streets are too narrow for anything but a bicycle; almost all the animals in the city are free-range; enchanting shoppes abound. The whole look and feel of the place is like something out of A Thousand and One Arabian Nights.


In other news, I stood for a while under this pot, trying to discern its purpose, but to no avail. Notice the elaborately carved window-shutters, though. They're designed to give maximum ventilation while minimizing visibility (from the outside).

The city is currently asking the government to fund a project that would see more of its buildings plastered on the outside, as Shibam was recently hit with a rainstorm and some of the buildings (like this one) didn't fare so well.

And that's it for Shibam, but there's lots more to come from the weekend - stay tuned.