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Sunday 2007-04-08 - Sey’un, Yemen
The Sultan’s Palace
In the center of Sey’un, the old palace of Sultan Mansur bin Ghalib rises high above all buildings in the town, its whitewashed walls glittering in the sun. The enormous building, dating from 1873, is now museum, and a visit is well worth the 500 YR entrance fee. Stone steps lead halfway up the hill on which the palace is built, the imposing gate followed by more steps leading to an inclining courtyard. The building, already interesting in itself, houses several different exhibitions.
The first big room is for the archeology department, with many different artifacts from the Wadi Hadramawt area. I’m always interested in scripts, and here I find several pieces of stone with inscriptions in an early local Yemeni script especially interesting. (We also saw samples of that at the Almaqah temple of Bar’en near old Marib.) Then there is an ethnological department, where a bust decked out in bride’s clothes and jewelry (a including a silver “crown”), and a baby cot very like those used all over Central Asia (with a hole in the bottom to lead away the urine) drew my attention.
Farther up, two photo exhibitions are not to be missed. In the 1930s the Englishwoman Freya Stark made two trips (alone) through the Wadi Hadramawt area; unfortunately she had her travels cut short by sickness and had to be evacuated, but during both her trips she took many photographs, which later were donated to this museum. An interesting collection is on show here now — a unique document of life in the Hadramawt in that period, especially since she as a woman was also able to photograph other women.
Also in the 1930 the Dutchman Daniel van der Meulen, employed by the Dutch government, made many trips through the Hadramawt. He was looking to get to know the origin of many immigrants to the Dutch East Indies who came from this area, and came to wealth there. Together with the German Von Wissman, who surveyed the area and made the first usable map of Wadi Hadramawt, he made many trips which he documented with countless excellent photographs. Sadly, many of the prints exhibited in the museum are badly fixed and yellowing and fading, here and there clumsily “restored” by sticking a partial new print over the old one. This department of the museum badly needs a good curator who knows how to preserve photographic materials, or it all may be irretrievably lost.
A fourth department we visit is the customs museum with many coins, documents, etc. Finally, we go up to the roof on the 6th floor for a spectacular view of the city center and a wide area around it.
We round off the morning with a bottle of local lemonade from freshly pressed limes, sugar to taste (only a little for me): a very refreshing drink — though not everyone appreciates the sour taste like I do!
Sunday 2007-04-08 - Shibam, Yemen
Manhattan of the desert
This afternoon we go with the whole group for a visit to old Shibam, which we passed yesterday on the way to Sey’un — I find it unbelievable that a visit to this city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1982, was not part of the original planning.
Unlike most cities in Wadi Hadramawt which are built nestling at the foot of a mountain or little way up, the walled city of Shibam is built on a free-standing hill in the valley. Just one square kilometer within the walls, it’s not surprising that the large family houses here are narrow and with even more floors than usual, built closely together. The buildings are even higher than the mosque’s minaret. Indeed, the skyline reminds one somewhat of a city with skyscrapers, earning it its epithet - but there the comparison with Manhattan stops.
Through the single whitewashed city gate one comes onto a square, and from there on it’s a labyrinth of winding narrow streets and alleys and an occasional courtyard, between the high-rising houses. The predominant color is that of the clay tiles the houses are built from and plastered with, but sometimes the upper part of a house is whitewashed, and there are surprising splashes of color: here dark-red window frames, there window niches painted bright blue; bright red or blue curtains (often on the outside of the window frames) flapping in the breeze, the lower part of a wall facing a courtyard painted a very bright green. In between all this troops of goats roam around, women go their own way in there elegant flowing black robes (often covering them completely, including a face veil, and often even black gloves), children are cheerful, and sometimes eager to be photographed (but not all). One can roam around here for hours and never be bored: it’s feast for the eyes.
Suddenly we hear music and follow our ears — we’d spread out as usual, but now we all arrive where the music is. There’s a growing crowd in the street, a little procession with musicians in front walks up and down — what’s happening? After a while it becomes clear: another wedding is taking place, the first day of it here. I don’t manage to catch a glimpse of the groom (or bride) but after walking up and down several times the musicians sit down at the edge of a big carpet spread out for them in the middle of the street. This becomes the dancing floor where the men dance, in small parties, taking turns. Unlike in Sana’a though, we’re not treated as special guests, and have to find our own (polite) ways of catching some glimpses. Still, most of us hang around for quite a while until it’s nearly time to go. The music and dancing made our visit to Shibam extra-memorable.
Sunday 2007-04-08 - Sey’un, Yemen
Tea at the neighbor’s
In the evening we go into town with a small group in search of dinner. Just before the Sey’un market square we find a small restaurant; it looks clean, several people sit and eat there, so we decide to try it. The friendly black-bearded owner requests two customers to move to another table (which they do willingly and with a smile), so we can all sit together. He has a problem though: he doesn’t speak a word of English, and our Arabic isn’t up to scratch yet.
Presently, a young man appears, and offers to help us order our food. His English is excellent and he explains he isn’t an employee here but the owner of the restaurant next door (apparently he owner had gone to fetch help!). We ask for several dishes; some are not available — he does have them in his own restaurant, he says, but since we have already chosen to sit here… We can’t honestly say that next time we’ll go to him: we’re leaving tomorrow, but he has a brilliant idea: Maybe, he suggests, we can come for tea at his restaurant after our meal. We have a delicious dinner with rice, chicken, bread, vegetable stew, and extra (free) side dishes appear with chopped red onions, a spicy tomato sauce, and a plate with green peppers (spicy, but not terribly hot). We simply drink mineral water with it.
The owner asks us where we come from, and beams. The whole meal costs us less than 350 YR per person with change to spare (no tip accepted).
Then we go to the neighbor’s restaurant for tea. Henk asks, carefully, if maybe he has some sweets with it? No, the owner says, but he can get some for us, no problem. He disappears and presently returns with three plastic bags, and starts to unload them onto plates. First, a plate with four (big) croissants. Next, a plate with a pile of small cakes. The third bag contains something like egg cakes, but we convince him this is already more than enough. No problem, he says, we’ll only pay for what we eat. All of us eat from the little cakes, so fresh they’re still warm, with a crispy crust on the outside, soft on the inside — they’re delicious. I’m not a cake person, but even I have one of them, they’re so good! And all of this can still be paid from the change we got back from our dinner.
