WADI HADHRAMAUT

Continuing north from Wadi Doan, you intersect Wadi Hadhramaut-- the biggest of the valleys-- running mostly east-west.

Wadi Hadhramaut is home to the UNESCO World Heritage village of Shibam, in addition to the Sufi religious study centres of Tarim and Einat, and of course Seiyun, the largest city in the region and home to Seiyun International Airport (one of the few airports still functioning in Yemen).

If you drive in from Al Mukalla (coastal road), you’ll first come to Shibam on the western side of the valley, but if you take the desert road, you’ll hit Einat and Tarim first (about an 8 hour drive from the desert frontier town of Shehn).

On my second trip, I took the desert highway, so my first stop was Einat and Tarim. Einat is known really for its Sufi shrines and cemetery, while Tarim is famous as both a pilgrimage town and centre for Sufi religious learning around the Islamic world. Einat is worth a quick stop to check out the cemetery, while Tarim is worth a good half-day to explore, and if you’re lucky you may catch a Sufi music and dancing ceremony (best chances are on Thursdays and Fridays, but they are also seasonal).

Tarim is home to Dar Al Mustafa, a religious academy that attracts scholars and students from around the Islamic world, so it’s not uncommon to bump into Malaysians and Indonesians studying at the academy there. I also met a teacher who invited me to visit, but I ran out of time in the city so I had to turn him down.

The Al Muhdhar Mosque in tarim’s old town is striking, with a massive white mud-brick minaret, and while non-Muslims are not allowed to enter the actual mosque, you can see it from the outside. The small, yet bustling souq is definitely worth wandering around, and it’s located right in the old town. Tarim is best enjoyed on foot, as the town is peaceful, conservative and pleasant to walk around and observe daily life.

Continuing west from Tarim through the valley, you’ll arrive in Seiyun-- the main commercial hub of the Hadhramaut Valley. Seiyun is currently the home of a large Saudi military presence in south Yemen, and they’ve turned the famous Kathiri Seiyun Palace (the building on the 1,000 Yemeni Rial bill) into their base, so visits are out of the question.

Seiyun itself does not have much in terms of places to visit, but if you need to pick up any supplies, do some shopping, exchange money, and check out restaurants, Seiyun is perfect for that. Seiyun is also a useful transit spot, since the city has one of Yemen’s last remaining commercial airports, you can fly from here to Socotra Island (on Wednesdays) or to Cairo, Egypt.

Seiyun is also the jumping-off spot for a visit to Shibam. Shibam is, at least somewhat understandably, one of the main reasons people want to visit Hadhramaut.

The town is a remarkably well preserved walled town of tightly constructed mud skyscrapers. It’s been dubbed the “Manhattan of the Desert” and while the highest building is about eleven stories, that’s an impressive feat considering everything has been built with mud bricks and wooden beams from the valley.

Shibam itself is a UNESCO World Heritage site, having earned the designation in 1982 and was subsequently added to the “cultural heritage at risk” list in 2015. The town has not fully escaped the war and due to its natural touristic draw, has been the target of several extremist attacks carried out by AQAP, including a suicide bombing in 2007 at a viewpoint that killed several South Korean tourists. In 2015 AQAP attempted to take over Shibam and detonated a car full of explosives at a checkpoint leading into the town but were thankfully repelled by Arab coalition forces.

All this being said, Shibam is spectacular, but you should definitely be extremely aware of your surroundings when visiting and ideally travel with an armed guard. Wandering around the cobbled streets of Shibam is amazing, and you can experience bits of local life around every corner. The city is also full of goats and cats-- goats are kept in many of the homes on the ground floors and they graze just outside the city walls.

If lucky, you can catch herds of goats being watched over or led around by local Hadhrami women wearing traditional conical straw hats. They look like witches in the hats and black abayas and niqabs-- but they most definitely do not like to be photographed, they will yell and throw rocks at you if you try.

I spent a full afternoon wandering the streets of Shibam, led around by the caretaker of the local museum (he did not have any other visitors). As we walked past the mud high-rises and mosques, storefronts and tea shops, I could feel the spirit of the city through its inhabitants. At one point we heard a lute being played from one of the high-rises and after yelling up, a man came to his window and invited us into his home to listen to him play.

There’s a square just past the main gate to the city where old men sip tea and play dominoes, and before leaving I sat watching them for a while. This served as a great reminder to me-- despite all of what has happened in Yemen, life goes on.

From the main gate, we walked out of the walled city and across the street to a sandy field where youth were starting to kick around a soccer ball. We continued by foot up into the adjacent village, winding our way to a gated viewpoint to enjoy a spectacular sunset. The warm light from the lowering sun bathes the brown and white village in a beautiful golden colour.

The viewpoint is gated since this was the location of the 2007 suicide bombing attack against tourists and Kais stayed behind with a gun slung across his shoulder manning the gate. As the sun set behind the canyon wall, the calls to prayer echoed from the mosques surrounding me. It was a magical feeling and a remarkably spiritual way to conclude my trip to Yemen.

We then hurried back down through the village to our waiting car and continued off to our private accommodation in Seiyun where we’d spend our last night chewing qat and smoking shisha together before catching an early morning flight to Socotra the next day.