Shibam

Old Walled City of Shibam*
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Sibam.jpg
Type Cultural
Criteria iii, iv, vi
Reference 192
Region** Arab States
Inscription history
Inscription 1982  (6th Session)
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List.
** Region as classified by UNESCO.

Shibam (Arabic: شبام‎) (often referred to as Shibam Hadhramaut) is a town in Yemen with about 7,000 inhabitants. The first known inscription about the city dates from the 3rd century AD.[1] It was the capital of the Hadramawt Kingdom.

Shibam owes its fame to its distinct architecture, which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The houses of Shibam are all made out of mud brick but about 500 of them are tower houses, which rise 5 to 11 stories high,[2] with each floor having one or two apartments.[3] This building technique was implemented in order to protect residents from Bedouin attacks. While Shibam has been in existence for an estimated 1,700 years, most of the city's houses originate from the 16th century. Many, though, have been rebuilt numerous times in the last few centuries.

Shibam is often called "the oldest skyscraper city in the world" or "the Manhattan of the desert", and is one of the oldest and best examples of urban planning based on the principle of vertical construction.[4] The city has the tallest mud buildings in the world, with some of them over 30 meters[5] (100 feet) high, thus being early high-rise apartment buildings. In order to protect the buildings from rain and erosion, the façades are thickly coated and must be routinely maintained.

The nearby town of Tarim contains the tallest structure in the Wadi Hadhramaut valley, the mudbrick minaret of the Al-Mihdhar mosque. It stands at a height of approximately 53 meters (175 feet.)[3] This is the tallest minaret in the southern Arabian peninsula.[6]

Threats to Shibam

Another view of Shibam

The city was heavily affected by flooding in 2008.[7] The foundations of many of the buildings in the city were compromised by the flood waters, eventually leading to their collapse.[8] It was also the target of an Al Qaeda attack in 2009.[9][10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ [1]
  2. ↑ Helfritz, Hans (April 1937), "Land without shade", Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society 24 (2): 201–16 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Pamela Jerome, Giacomo Chiari, Caterina Borelli (1999), "The Architecture of Mud: Construction and Repair Technology in the Hadhramaut Region of", APT Bulletin 30 (2-3): 39–48 [44], doi:10.2307/1504639 
  4. ↑ Old Walled City of Shibam, UNESCO World Heritage Centre
  5. ↑ Shipman, J. G. T. (June 1984), "The Hadhramaut", Asian Affairs 15 (2): 154–62, doi:10.1080/03068378408730145 
  6. ↑ p. 9, The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America, James Bamford, Random House, Inc., 2009, ISBN 0307279391.
  7. ↑ "Death Toll Mounts In Tropical Storm". CBS 13. 2008-10-26. http://cbs13.com/national/Death.Toll.Mounts.2.848789.html. Retrieved 2008-10-26. 
  8. ↑ "Historic Town of Shibam Hadramout Escapes Flooding Largely Unscathed". ITN Source. November 3, 2008. http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//RTV/2008/11/03/RTV3319008/?s=floods. 
  9. ↑ "Al Qaeda blamed for Yemen attack". CNN. 2009-03-16. http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/03/16/yemen.bombing.alqaeda/index.html. Retrieved 2009-04-26. 
  10. ↑ "Al-Qaeda in Yemen:Political, Social and Security Dimensions". Yemen Post. 2009-04-12. http://yemenpost.net/Detail123456789.aspx?ID=3&SubID=542&MainCat=5. Retrieved 2009-04-26. 

External links