Probably for most people, a bridge is a crossing over a river. Therefore, we are impressed by the bridges laid across huge precipices in the mountains. The Shekhar pedestrian bridge is located in Yemen and connects two villages located across a deep ravine from each other at a high altitude. And in part, the bridge is considered a military construction.
To be precise, it is about 300 meters from the bridge to the bottom of the gorge. The height of the bridge above sea level is 2160 meters. The bridge itself is small, since the gorge is really narrow - about 20 meters. The width of the bridge is 3 meters, but the structure itself stretches steep stairs up the rocks.
The Shekhar Bridge was built in the 17th century, and it was built from solid limestone blocks mined here. They say that Salah al-Yaman, who was an architect, at the end of the construction, himself was surprised that such a miracle could be made practically from “scrap materials”. There is a separate legend about this man, which we will recall below.
Shekhar bridge and uphill stairs.
Of course, the main question that worries tourists (well, after the question “how not to fall off this bridge”) is how the bridge was built at such a height, and even over an abyss. It is believed that this is one of the unsolvable mysteries, which, apparently, should attract tourists. But it is difficult to say for sure, because even the bridge now looks clearly not the way it looked after construction.
It is believed that initially the Shekhar Bridge had a slightly different look. Now it is a lonely arch, but if you look at the photo, then below you can see the remains of a destroyed base, presumably another arch. How it was destroyed and when is not clear. How many there were in total is also unclear. Or maybe these are just traces of the first unsuccessful attempts to build a bridge.
Shekhar Bridge - you can see the destroyed parts from the previous building.
But then there is a legend that the bridge was conceived so that in the event of an attack by enemies, local residents could leave - to another village, to another mountain. The village of Shekhara itself is located on the top of Mount Jabal Shaharah al `Amir, and a trail across this bridge led to the village on Mount Jabal Shaharat al Faykh - at least such information can be found in many articles on the topic.
Promotional video:
The path there, judging by the map, is not close - and in general the structure of this mountain range is very interesting, in the form of a horseshoe - but such a transition made it possible not to descend from the mountains, but to go on top. Again, if you look at the map, then there seems to be a bypass of the gorge. So, most likely, crossing the bridge just allowed to gain time in case of real danger.
Shekhar bridge and two mountains on the map (Google Maps).
Tradition also speaks of the secret of the bridge: in just a few minutes, those who knew this secret could completely bring down the bridge in order to delay the enemy. The thought comes to mind that perhaps those destroyed parts of the bridge are a trace of such a "retreat"? Although information about this was somehow not found.
The history of this place is closely intertwined with the history of Yemen. Now, speaking of Shekhar, they often mean a small village in which there are many houses destroyed by the bombing during the 1960 civil war. Shekhara was a kind of headquarters for the resistance forces of the Turks - references in this context date back to the 12th century.
View of the Shekhara village.
Interestingly, if you look at the map, you can see that the second part of the settlement called Shaharah city is located nearby. They say that just here are the remains of truly old buildings. This is evidenced by the fact that these buildings were built from exactly the same limestone blocks as the Sherakh Bridge.
The part of the settlement, to which the road through the bridge leads, is apparently newer - it is even said that its few houses were built from materials obtained from the old houses of the current Shaharah city. There you can also see special reservoirs with water - also a traditional feature of local mountain villages.
Shekhara village and water reservoir.
Another "feature" of this settlement - Shekhara is considered the highest mountain village in Yemen, which also gives another reason to attract tourists. But the main attraction is the bridge. His image even ended up on local money - in 2003, a 10 Yemeni rial coin appeared with his "profile".
Well, the promised legend about Salah al-Yaman, who built this bridge. It is said that one of the legends says that this architect built only half of the structure. And the bridge was completed by an unknown person who came out of the mountains. Maybe this is an echo of the fact that the bridge collapsed once?
Coin with the image of the Shekhar bridge.
But we mentioned that Salah al-Yaman himself was surprised at what kind of beauty he eventually turns out to be made from improvised means using ordinary tools. They say that in the end he really went crazy with the thought. So it is quite possible that he continued his work, already being a somewhat "different person" - hence the legend about the unknown who completed the bridge.
And the last completely tourist bike - as an example of naming, the authors of which were local guides or someone else from their contemporaries. It is said that when people first see the Shekhar Bridge, they become speechless and sigh enchanted. That is why the building was allegedly nicknamed "the Bridge of Sighs". The views, of course, are crazy here, but the name turned out to be a little fake, don't you think?
* Classic * view of the Shekhara bridge.