Yemen in Peril. (View).

The Yemen Republic has one of the longest continuous architectural traditions in the world. As a fine and provocative exhibition on the Queen of Sheba at the British Museum in London shows, (1) the traditional way of building has changed little since the first millennium BC. Tall tower houses six or seven stories high are owned by individual families, who have added to them vertically over the centuries. Made of stone in the mountainous north, and of mud brick in the more southern parts, the houses nudge each other to make the defensive perimeters of each settlement, and the enclosing walls of the urban spaces. South Arabia (the Roman Arabia Felix) had a civilized society based on the wealth of its spice and incense trade -- this is where the gold, frankincense and myrrh of the Bible came from. In places, the land is surprisingly fertile and the climate propitious for cultivation (though there is a great deal of desert).

Until 1994, when the two parts of the Yemen were finally effectively associated following a bloody civil war (the last to date of many), society and architecture was little changed from ancient times, except of course by high explosives, kalashnikovs and land mines. Now, everything has calmed down, and the nation is united, and in some ways more prosperous, but the immemorial fabric of the cities and towns is on the edge of destruction.

Sana'a, the capital, is in the transition zone between the earth architecture of the south and the stone work of the north. It is also on the critical hinge between ancient and modern. Declared a UNESCO world heritage site, in 1984, the old walled city is largely still intact, though numerous horrid things have been done in the name of progress. For instance, the old city wall built in the eleventh century AD by a brother of Saladin, was destroyed 10 years ago by a doubtless well-meaning French initiative: its generous 3m wide promenade was replaced by a structure a third of the width, made in the wrong earth which will inevitably lead to decay in quite a short time. Less controversially, the wadi (2) has been turned into a road (it always was a sort of thoroughfare). Its sides have been lined with ashlar, but at least it is not the city's rubbish dump, filled with plastic, like so many other Yemeni urban wadis.

The city has conservation rules agreed with UNESCO -- but very few funds to implement them. As each house has been owned by a single family from time immemorial, changes can be made at whim: many additions are made in coarse, harsh burnt brick, rather than the softer muds. Many seem to put so much weight on the basic structure that collapse will be difficult to avoid. As wealth grows, more and more radical changes and demolitions are to be expected.

To many of the residents of the old centre, the fabric of the town is ridiculous: an old lady came up and asked us why we were taking pictures of the traditional buildings. 'We want to live in modern houses', she said. One can see her point after climbing lots of traditional stairs: they are very high in the risers and short in the goings: a pitch not calculated to be easy for people with arthritis. All the new buildings spread out over the Sana'a plain, almost to the surrounding mountains. Styling is often based on concrete kitsch versions of tradition. The city's population has grown from about 50 000 to over a million in 20 years. A most fragile fabric is in great danger.

We shall have a more extensive article on traditional Yemeni architecture in the next issue. (3)

(1.) Queen of Sheba: Treasures from Ancient Yemen. From 9 June to 13 October.

(2.) River valley, usually dry, but prone to flash floods in the monsoon season.

(3.) My visit was made possible by the kind help of the British Museum, Universal Travel and Tourism of Sana'a, and Yemenia, the national airline. I am most grateful to them all.