Shibam

Located on the centre of Yemen, the walled city of Shibam is one of these impossible places and oddities of the Arabic urbanism. Because of its location and the politic instability of the country, it has not been completely discovered yet. Its main feature is the verticality of the buildings: towers up to 40 meters and 7 floors that are built with mud. It is considered as the “Manhattan of the desert”. La ciudad amurallada de Shibam, localizada en el centro de Yemen, es uno de esos lugares imposibles o rarezas del urbanismo árabe que, debido a su localización e inestabilidad política en la zona, no han sido completamente descubiertos. Su principal característica es la verticalidad de sus edificios: torres de hasta 40 metros y 7 plantas construidos en barro que le han dado el apodo de “Manhattan del Desierto”. One of the main features that make this city a fantastic element of the landscape is its location and morphology. Located in an irrigated agricultural land, Shibam is built on a rock basement. This basement has let the city to survive to the floods of the area. Most of its buildings were built during the XVI century, after the massive flood that destroyed the previous settlement in 1532-3. Shibam has been a rich city due to farming and the trading of spice and incense and this is the reason that city suffered continuous attacks and invasions. The morphology of the city and its buildings respond to the necessity to be protected from these attacks. Uno de las principales características que convierte esta ciudad en un elemento paisajístico formidable es su localización y morfología. Situada en una zona agrícola de regadío, Shibam está construida sobre un basamento rocoso que le ha permitido sobrevivir a las inundaciones de la zona. La mayoría de sus edificios datan del siglo XVI, tras las masivas inundaciones de 1532-3 que destruyeron los asentamientos previos.