The city of Shibam located in Yemen is called "the oldest city of skyscrapers in the world", "Manhattan of the Desert". It is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The ancient city of Shibam, built 400 years ago, was a thriving trade center. Shibam several times became the capital of the kingdom of Hadhramaut. The city is famous for its incomparable architecture - all the houses in Shibam are built of adobe bricks. About 500 houses can be called high-rise buildings, since they have 5-11 floors. Each floor was the dwelling of one family. This type of structure was intended to protect the inhabitants of the city from the raids of the Bedouins. Although Shibam has been around for about 2,500 years, most of the town houses were built in the 16th century. Many of them were rebuilt several times in the following centuries. Shibam is home to the tallest clay buildings in the world, some of which rise 30 meters or more.
In the city of Shibam, all objects, including fences, houses, mosques and even schools, are built of adobe bricks (they are made from clay, straw and water, dried in the sun for three days and are ready for use in construction). These dwellings can last for centuries and are architectural marvels. This is due to the negligible amount of rainfall in this region, at best, it can get a little overgrown. Shibam residents paint and whitewash the exterior walls every year, enough to prevent water erosion. Shibam is built from environmentally friendly materials and blends perfectly with the environment.
All buildings in Shibam are of a tower type. 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.
These high-rise buildings are the product of the “traditional family system”. According to local traditions, a family, as it grows, as a rule, does not divide the constructed premises, but expands its living space upward thanks to the original roof. So, from generation to generation, high dwellings are gradually formed.
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Model Each of the 500 such houses in Shibam has 5 to 8 floors and is home to 7,000 people, meaning that on average, each building is designed for more than 100 people.
The first floor is given to animals; the second floor serves as a storage room; the third is living quarters. Usually on the third floor is the master's room, the fourth and fifth floors are rooms for women and children, on the sixth floor there is a common room. There is not much space in each room, the first and second floors are mostly devoid of windows.
Shibam is 160 km long and 2 km wide and is a dry valley. Here precipitation, heavy rains or floods are extremely rare. However, in 1298 and 1532, Shibam was destroyed twice by floods.
Today's buildings in Shibam are mostly built 400 years ago.