Megapolis, which is 2000 years old: How ancient architects managed to build skyscrapers

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

It is called a little-known wonder of the world, and eastern Chicago, and Manhattan in the desert, but more often it is just an ancient city of skyscrapers. It is amazing, but such an incredible "metropolis" appeared in the poorest province of Yemen many centuries ago. Narrow tall houses look incredible against the backdrop of a laconic desert landscape. This psychedelic picture is simply mesmerizing. But even more striking is the fact that "skyscrapers" were built many centuries ago.

The houses here are mostly five-seven-story, but there are also eleven-story buildings. By modern standards, this is not very high, but against the backdrop of a lifeless desert, narrow cone-shaped buildings seem to be the most real skyscrapers. And they do not look at all the same as they usually build in the east. It seems that aliens have descended from the sky and built this fantastic city here. However, in fact, there is no mysticism here, and Shibam's story is very prosaic.

How skyscrapers appeared

Now the inhabitants of the province of Hadramut, in which one of the world's oldest cities with skyscrapers is "hidden", are not rich people. But during its heyday, in the distant V-VII centuries, Shibam was a very prosperous and prosperous city ruled by the richest sultan.

The emergence of such an interesting vertical architecture is due to the fact that during the existence of the city, outsiders regularly attacked it, and residents had to constantly defend themselves. That is why the houses here are somewhat similar to impregnable towers with loopholed windows, and the city would look very dull if it were not for the original shape of the buildings (they taper upwards) and abundant carvings on windows, doors, bolts and doorways.

Shibam appeared about two thousand years ago. At first, the number of inhabitants here was not so great, and the floors of the buildings were also smaller. However, gradually the population of the city began to grow, by the 17th century the number of residents became catastrophically large, but, of course, no one wanted to settle outside the city wall. Therefore, gradually the buildings simply began to be made taller.

In dry climates, they stand for centuries

The houses here have a stone foundation, but are themselves made of clay mixed with straw. Such walls are very strong, and the narrowing of buildings from the base to the top makes them very stable. Alas, modern architects cannot repeat such constructions - the “recipe” has been lost.

The service life of such buildings was not very long in comparison with other ancient buildings in the world. As a result of rains (which, however, are rare here), the walls of the houses collapse over the years. And the strongest and lasting downpour can generally erode these houses in a matter of days. In any case, most of the buildings in this city are less than 200 years old. But earlier buildings have also survived: of those that we see now, the oldest is five centuries old.

The city where time stands still

Hadramut is considered the most backward province of Yemen, and the presence of multi-storey buildings does not make the inhabitants of Shibam richer and more modern. Herds of goats roam the city, and children run barefoot.

By the way, the distance between the houses is small, not only because of the lack of space. The close proximity of buildings to each other allowed the inhabitants of the fortress city to move from one house to another during the invasion of enemies.

There are several thousand inhabitants in modern Shibam, and out of 429 houses in the city only about forty are empty - the rest are inhabited by people. True, if earlier one house could be occupied by a whole family, now in the city, as a rule, each family has its own floor. Well, in the old days, each floor had its own purpose: the first was for storing food supplies and feed, the second was for keeping livestock, and the rest were residential (a hotel floor for guests, for owners, for newlyweds, for children, and so on) …

Yemen's "metropolis" is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, so in this regard, the half-impoverished residents are lucky: the crumbling house can be put in order at the expense of international organizations.

No less interesting The Mystery of the Neolithic "Metropolis": What the Sad Story of Chatal Huyuk Teaches