The oldest city of skyscrapers in the world (16 photos)

Shibam - a city in Hadramaut, Yemen, population about 7,000 inhabitants. Shibam was the capital of the kingdom of Hadramaut several times. (With the same name exists in the vicinity of the capital city of Sana'a in Yemen). Shibam is renowned for its incomparable with anything comparable architecture, which is included in the UNESCO World Heritage program. All the houses in Shibam built of mud bricks, approximately 500 homes can be considered a high-rise, as they have 5-11 floors, each floor is an apartment occupied by one family. This type of structure was designed to protect residents from Bedouin raids. While Shibam has existed for about 2,000 years, most of the town houses were built in the XVI century. Many of them have been rebuilt several times over the past century.

Shibam is often called "the oldest city of skyscrapers in the world" or "Manhattan of the desert", it is also the oldest example of urban planning based on the principle of vertical construction. In Shibam are the highest clay building in the world, some of which rise up to 30 m and more.


































photo © Khaled Abdullah, Reuters