Shibam
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How it came to be
Shibam is a walled town on a rocky rise in Wadi Hadramaut in eastern Yemen. The first known inscription about it dates from the 3rd century. When the earlier capital, Shabwa, was destroyed in 300, Shibam became the capital of the kingdom of Hadramaut.
A great flood in 1532 and 1533 destroyed part of the earlier settlement, and the present town was built after it. About 500 mud-brick tower houses stand packed together, some over 30 metres tall. The dense layout is explained as a defence between rival families, and it has earned the name Manhattan of the desert. Traders returning from Asia renewed the town in the late 19th century.
Shibam was inscribed in 1982. Floods in 2008 weakened foundations, and some buildings later collapsed. In 2015, during the civil war, it was placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger together with the Old City of Sana'a.
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