Two New Regions

Wednesday of last week the Ambassador and a delegation of Embassy staff (including me) went to Marib to visit development projects and assess the needs of the governorate. Marib is one of the least-developed and most-tribal areas of Yemen--one of the places where Yemeni government control is weak and where terrorists have been known to hang out under the protection of anti-government tribes. Obviously, the purpose of our trip was to see how we can try to turn things around in the governorate, hopefully thereby reducing terrorism in Yemen, at least in the long term.

Marib is the cradle of Yemeni civilization, seat of the Kingdom of Sheba, which was prosperous because of the irrigation provided by the Marib Dam and its position on the trade routes. However, because the focus of the trip was squarely on development, the Ambassador did not want to "waste time" seeing the tourist sites in the area. We did manage to visit one of the pre-Islamic temples ('Arsh Bilqis, or Sheba's Palace), but we saw neither the old nor the new Marib Dam. (The original dam burst in 570 AD, causing many of the inhabitants of the area to flee. One of the families that fled were the ancestors of Sheikh Zayid of the United Arab Emirates. Remembering that connection, the Sheikh personally donated tens of millions of dollars to build a new dam a few kilometers upstream of the ruins of the old one.)

Still, just going to the area was quite interesting. It's about two and a half hours from Sanaa on a good paved road, but the settlement pattern is like a whole new country. As you drive from Sanaa the villages change suddenly from stone mountaintop villages that closely resemble the mountain highlands settlements to a desert settlement model. Palm tree oases and small tower houses/fortresses line the road. The sand dunes begin about an hour outside of Sanaa and steadily grow in height and pervasiveness. We didn't continue all the way, but the transition continues until you eventually reach the Empty Quarter, the vast region of total picture book desert on the southern third of the Arabian peninsula between Yemen, Oman, and Saudi Arabia.

We found the people of Marib to be friendly, though suspicion of outsiders and the central government was obvious, I thought. Everyone in Marib is armed to the teeth--a handgun, jambiya, AND an AK-47 seems to be the required minimum. Because of the nature of our trip, we were welcomed, which is a good thing, because any small village in Marib easily outgunned our security escort.

Since we had a 5-day weekend for the Eid el-Adha celebration, my friend Anise and I decided to go to Wadi Hadhrmaut. This area of southern Yemen is one of the main tourist attractions, offering totally different architecture from the north. (Most striking to me was that there are no gamaria on the buildings. The colored-glass decoration are such a symbol of Yemen for me, but they simply don't exist there. Instead, nearly all windows have carbed wooden shutters known as "mashrabeya.") Unfortunately, because of the Eid, virtually everything was closed. So we had the chance to see lots of interesting buildings and towns that were almost abandoned, but we had trouble finding restaurants for lunch..

The mud brick architecture of Wadi Hadhrmaut is totally different from anything in Sanaa. Most impressive is the city of Shibam, called "The Manhatten of the East." Shibam's 400 year-old skyscrapers rise up out of the middle of Wadi Hadhrmaut like a challenge to the flat floodplain. Other towns and villages just seem to grow out of the sides of mountains, their color a complete match for the rocks except where lime has been applied to make a white building.

Wadi Hadhrmaut was part of the ancient incense route and many Hadhramis have been explorers and traders for centuries. The influence of eastern cultures in apparent in many buildings--Hadhramis sailed to the Far East and as far south as Zanzibar. We visited the port of Mukallah, from where many of those journeys began. Of course, because of the Eid, we only saw a few dhows at anchor and couldn't get fresh fish.

Wadi Hadhrmaut is also famous for the tombs of many prophets and saints. Being non-Muslims, we were not allowed to enter any of them, but their domed buildings were magnificent to behold and a stark contrast to the square houses around. There are also many phenomenal palaces in Hadhrmaut, built for sultans and merchants. Building with mud allows for a degree of whimsy and ornamentation that stone and concrete simply make too hard. Essentially, buildings in Hadhrmaut are large sand castles without the waves to wash them away. (The region averages only 5 cm. of rain per year, often far less. And that water mostly falls on the mountains, then flows in to the Wadi as floods. The villages and farms have been placed to avoid the flooding and use it as irrigation, respectively.)

The heat in Hadhrmaut is quite oppressive, especially considering that we were there in February. It's no wonder that you can bake mud and straw into bricks that can build a skyscraper. The sun was like a blast furnace from the morning until it set at night. It made traveling a little oppressive at times.

Finally, Hadhrmaut is known for its honey. Yemeni honey is considered among the best in the world, primarily because the ancient beekeeping tradition can also benefit from the small number of flowering plants in the desert, thus allowing careful segregation of the types of honey. We sampled (and purchased--at great expense) many flavors. All were quite good, but not being a real honey connoisseur, I don't know if I am competent to judge their true worth. One was spicy, leaving our mouths burning a little. Naturally, Yemenis attribute all sorts of health and medicinal properties to the various kinds of honey. The best of the best (from Wadi Doan, from bees feeding only on the Ibb tree) is thought (at least by the Saudis who come and pay high prices for it) to be an aphrodisiac. I bought some so I can test the theory...

But a five day trip to an interesting new area is significantly less fun without Jen. What more can I say? Being in an interesting country (weird, sometimes daunting, and did I mention really weird sometimes?) is just not worth it if I can't be with my wife, best friend, and favorite travel companion.

Unfortunately, even when authorized departure ends, we can not be sure that our lives in Yemen will be stable. We have been doing some serious thinking about what we want to do about that.

- Michael Kolodner