Travel Guide Shibam

This made up of gratte houses attached to each other and built with clay bricks. The city, which forms an almost perfect square, is surrounded by a one-door breakthrough. The 500 houses/towers of Shibam have between 5 and 7 floors. The highest measure 29,15 m on the street and 36,50 m for its facade overlooking the wadi. The windows, arranged in regular lines, are adorned with wooden lace and surrounded by white decor with Indian and Indonesian style mouldings. The doors and locks are also wooden and remarkably sculptées. The city has five mosques in operation, the oldest of which, dated 753, was rebuilt by Harun Al-Rashid in 904. This mosque has just been restored again. Shibam also has two palaces, one of which was built in the 1920 th century and the other is much more recent in. The current forum dates back to the th century. Shibam became capital of the Hadramawt after the destruction of Chaboua by the Sabéens in 230-220 BC C. The inhabitants of Chaboua came to inhabit Shibam and gave him his name, similar to that of their old town. Shibam was then the centre of commerce in the Hadramawt until the th century. She had to suffer numerous floods, including that of 1352 which destroyed the houses close to the Wadi. Other homes collapsed in 1982, during the last flood. In 1984, Shibam was declared World Heritage City by UNESCO.