"Manhattan Desert" - the city of the oldest high-rise buildings on the planet

It turns out that long before high-rise buildings appeared in New York or London, 10-story buildings already existed on the Arabian Peninsula. Before the ingenious architectural solution, which will save the area of the city, but at the same time can accommodate more people, we thought of it in the city of Shibam, which we will talk about today.

Shibam, located in Yemen, is one of the oldest cities in the Middle East. His age, according to various sources, ranges from 2500 to 2000 years. Shibam is located in the central part of the country and in antiquity was one of the most important cities in the kingdom of Hadramaut, which existed on this territory until the 4th century. In the XVI century, a fortress wall was built around the city, which served as a defense and designated the boundaries of the city. But the population of the city was growing, and it was not safe to settle outside the wall. Today it is difficult to say who was the first to come up with this brilliant idea, but in the city they began to build high-rise buildings, which had 5, 8 and even 11 floors.

All houses in Shibam are built of local building material - clay-straw bricks, which the builders dried right under the scorching Arabian sun. Due to the hot and dry climate of this region, houses built from such bricks can stand for centuries. The oldest multi-storey building of Shibam is already more than 400 years old, although the vast majority of such houses were built at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. Clay houses narrow as the height increases, as the thickness of the walls decreases. Between neighboring buildings, you can often see peculiar balconies-transitions. Each house is a kind of small fortress: it has a strong door and several loopholes intended for defense.

Most of the high-rise buildings of Shibam are about 30 meters high, and the tallest building is 53 meters high. Shibama fortress houses are recognized as the highest clay buildings of all that exist in the modern world. Shibam was built according to a clear urban development plan, which once again testifies to the wisdom of those who led the development of this unusual settlement.