This city is already more than two thousand years old, however, in the form in which it is known all over the world, it began to form about five centuries ago. The architecture of the city has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1982.
For a long time, this town, whose population does not exceed 14 thousand people, was the capital of the ancient South Arabian state of Hadhramaut, now considered a historical region and province in Yemen. The city has about half a thousand high-rise buildings from five to eleven floors. One family occupies each floor of the house. The original purpose of the construction of such a city was to protect against raids by Bedouin nomads.
Shibam is located on a hill, which allowed it at one time not only to become the main center of the province, but also to become the most important trading center in all of Hadramut.
Since the city was rich, not only merchants and traders rushed to its walls, but also "romantics from the high road", as well as more organized groups of Bedouins, for the defense against which it was decided on the so-called "vertical planning" - all buildings in Shibame are tower-type buildings.
Such dwellings served as the protection of the city during inter-tribal wars. High-rise tower houses are so tightly adjacent to each other that they form an impregnable wall with the only gates leading to the city.
Promotional video:
Now the main problem is the raids of termites. Naturally, the houses have been rebuilt several times, and between many of them there are connecting bridges. Today, there are the world's tallest clay houses, whose height reaches 30 meters.
The city of Shiban emerged on the site of the ancient South Arabian kingdom of Hadramaug, in a valley that formed on the site of a dry river about 1,700 years ago. It was a kind of halt on one of the paths of "silk and spices", so many people had time to trample here even before our era: some went here for a wallet, others - for the lives of those who have a wallet. Due to the sharp relief and the fortress walls that protected the peace of citizens from the Bedouin raids, the city could only grow upwards.
The height of each tower does not depend on the whim of the owners - it is calculated in such a way that all houses receive the same amount of sunlight. It would seem a light rain - and such structures will slide down. But here's luck: there is practically no rainfall in Yemen, well, except that once every five hundred years there will be a flood. The service life of a mud brick house is two to three centuries. To keep the foam standing and not falling, residents constantly grease them with special clay mixed with lime, and at night, they probably also spit on them, so that they stand stronger.
The height of traditional residential buildings in Shibam is from 6 to 9 floors (18-26 meters). The outer walls are made quite thick - their thickness at the level of the first floor reaches 120 cm; at the level of the eighth floor, it is equal to 28 cm. The thickness of the walls decreases with each floor by 3 cm. The decrease in thickness occurs only from the outside, thus, from the inside, the area of rooms does not change from floor to floor.
In order to protect buildings from rain and erosion, the facades are densely covered on the outside with a mixture of earth and straw. Sometimes wooden beams are inserted into the walls to strengthen them.
Wall coverings require constant maintenance and updating. Although not a major issue - homeowners are unable to cope with the very high rise in maintenance costs, which is why a large number of houses in Shibam appear to be abandoned.