The Manhattan of the Desert: Shibam, Yemen

 

Deep in the middle of Yemen lays a town nearly two-thousand years old that pioneered skyscrapers.  Shibam, a town of about 7,000 people, was founded sometime around the 3rd century AD.  The town was built in its unique way to help protect residents from regional Bedouin attacks. Enormous clay walls were built around the city and residences were built upward rather than outward. Shibam is often referred to as “the oldest skyscraper city in the world,” and is one of the oldest examples of vertical urban planning.