Trip to Wadi Dhar/Rock Palace

Salaaaaaamz

Hope ur all ok! miss u all and wish u happy days! I'm ok doing well thank God. Work is SLOWWWW here. I'm still in the Hotel until now! I found what was supposed to be a good apartment (by Irbid standards I wouldn't take it!) furnished 2.5 bedroom apartment for 400$ a month. We asked the owner to clean up the place and he dispatched the building guard to do so. After it appeared to be in a livable state, the sneaky guard showed it to other people and signed them with the brother of the guy we agreed with to get some commission out of it! hence the saying: (Abu Yaman LAAA Yo'taman)

I found a new home, tomorrow is crucial to seal the deal, ed3ooli!

There are two major attractions in Sana, that's why I'm trying to delay my field trips as much as I can, to get the assuring sense that there are still somethings to do here! The first is the old city of Sanaa, which I haven't visited yet, and the other - which I visited today - is called wadi dhar which has the stone palace. to get there is simple, just take the road to get out of San'aa, and keep on driving until there are no roads left! when you enter Wadi Dhar, you are stepping out of the end of a worm hole sending you 3000 years backwards! You first see watch towers on each side, then you encounter a city that precedes ancient Egypt, difference is, people are still living here the same way they did so long ago! I read somewhere that until the mid forties of the last centuries, the way of living of these people were untouched for thousands of years! they live in old huge buildings two, three, or four storeys tall made mostly out of clay! they have developed a unique technique that allowed them to build the oldest skyscrapers known to man!

The new buildings in that area were made using the same old technique, so they are indistinguishable from the old. People there are very hospitable and offered to have us for lunch (serve us not eat us :)). The main attraction is located in the middle of the valley, where a 5 storey palace is built in on top of a giant rock! the old building is prehistoric, but the one you see in the attached pictures was built in the 1930's for the old Imam who ruled Sanaa called Imam Yehya. It is huge and contains many facilities that are considered modern taking into consideration the time they were put into service. From chair equipped indoor bathrooms to wall refrigerators, its amazing the luxury he and his four wives had. There is also a 250m well dug into the rock!

I will leave the pictures to speak for them selves! enjoy and God bless!

P.S. Here in Yemen, they have their own pre-defined nick-names, for example Mohammad is (el 3ezzi), Abed is (el Fakhri). As for me, after being called 3li el-lebnani in Egypt, I am now 3li Al-Jamali!

Ali "Al-Jamali" Al-Ja3fari