Shibam
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شبام Shibam |
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| Coordinates | 15 ° 56 ' N , 48 ° 38' E | ||
| Basic data | |||
| Country | Yemen | ||
| Hadramaut | |||
| ISO 3166-2 | YE-HD | ||
| Residents | 13,316 (2004) | ||
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Shibam ( Arabic شبام, DMG Šibām ) is the historic capital of the Hadramaut region in Yemen .
Shibam is located in the central Wadi Hadramaut and has over 13,000 inhabitants. The Shibam administrative unit has a population of 59,285. The old city covers an area of 250 meters by 350 meters and is famous for its multi-story adobe houses. Many of the buildings are up to 25 meters high and are up to 500 years old. The stability of the houses is ensured, among other things, by consistently reducing the wall thickness upwards, as well as by a rigid modular system of wall and window axes and a system of wooden columns and wooden ceilings that interlock the clay walls. The clay surfaces must be renewed regularly. The roofs and sensitive components are protected by lime plaster, which only needs to be renewed every 25 years.
This urban ensemble was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1982. On July 2, 2015, it was placed on the Red List of World Heritage in Danger due to the potential threat posed by the armed conflict .
The name of the city of Shibam appears on a hadramitic temple inscription from the 5th century BC, which was found in the wider city area and is kept in the Museum of Seyun. After the destruction of Shabwat in the 3rd century, the population immigrated to the central Wadi Hadramaut and probably founded the city of Shibam in its current form. There are different versions of the origin of the name, the name of the city (as well as the city of Shibam Kaukaban ) was probably derived from an old South Arabic local expression for a place below a steep mountain. Up until the 15th century, Shibam was the political and economic center of the Hadramaut . But when the Kathiri sultans made Seiyun (Sejuhn) their new residence, the city increasingly lost its importance. It wasn't until 1893 that the first European reached the city.
The oldest mosque of Hadramaut, a Friday mosque that still exists today, is in Shibam . In the corners of the structure, researchers found burnt red bricks, which are completely unusual for the region, but correspond in color to a legend according to which the mosque is said to have been built during the reign of Caliph Hārūn ar-Raschīd in the early 9th century.
During heavy rain at the end of October 2008 , some houses collapsed.
literature
- Tom Leiermann: Shibam - Life in Mud Towers , Wiesbaden 2009 Dr. Reichert-Verlag ISBN 978-3-89500-644-9 .
- Werner Daum: Yemen , Umschau-Verlag, Frankfurt / Main, ISBN 3-7016-2251-5 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Population data for Shibam on City Population
- ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: World Gezatteer population data 2012
- ↑ UNESCO World Heritage Center: Old Walled City of Shibam. Retrieved September 11, 2017 .
- ↑ Yemen's Old City of Sana'a and Old Walled City of Shibam added to the List of World Heritage in Danger ( Memento of 2 July 2015 Webcite ) (English). UNESCO World Heritage Center, July 2nd, 2015.
- ↑ Ronald Lewcock: Yemenitische Architektur im Mittelalter , in: Werner Daum: Yemen , Umschau-Verlag, Frankfurt / Main, ISBN 3-7016-2251-5 , p. 202.
- ↑ Storm in Yemen: 50 people are dying - World Heritage under threat , Spiegel online from October 25, 2008, accessed on July 19, 2017.
Web links
- Entry on the UNESCO World Heritage Center website ( English and French ).
- Project page of the Society for Technical Cooperation on Shibam
- The Architecture of Mud - Documentary by Caterina Borelli (1999)
