Video: The oldest skyscraper city built in the Shibam Desert
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
New York, Dubai, Shanghai, Moscow … What unites all these cities? World famous skyscrapers, of course! Skyscrapers, from which the head is spinning, are a symbol of any modern city! However, few people know that the first multi-storey buildings did not appear in America or Europe, but in the middle of the desert - in Asia! Shibam in the Republic of Yemen today it is customary to call "The oldest city of skyscrapers in the world" or "Deserted Manhattan"!
The uniqueness of the city is that skyscrapers were built here for the first time on earth - buildings up to 30 meters high. The skyscrapers were built of clay bricks, close to each other, so that they formed something like a fortress. Even today, you can get to this city only through one gate, so Shiban is quite reminiscent of an ancient defensive structure that protected local residents from Bedouin raids.
Most of the buildings were built in the 16th century and still function today. Today, the unique architecture of the city is included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site, tourists can see more than 500 houses, which are from 6 to 11 floors! There is an apartment for one family on each floor. There are no windows on the first floors, there are granaries and premises for livestock, on the middle floors there are living rooms, above there are kitchens and bedrooms. The upper floor (mafraj) is reserved for the rest of men. Many houses are connected by passages: they used to be used for communication during the war, but now they are used by elderly people who get tired of walking up endless stairs.
The city is home to about 7000 people. Time changes little the appearance of Shibam: the walls of houses, covered with whitewash, are still as white as they were hundreds of years ago. The only traces of civilization are satellite dishes and air conditioners on the clay walls.
However, one should not forget that nature is not always favorable to people, and if the desert gave life to Shibam, it destroyed before Kolmanskop. This city, swallowed by the desert, until recently was flourishing and inhabited, and over the past 50 years has turned into a ghost town.
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