Architectural Heritage of Yemen: Buildings That Fill My Eye

摘要

Yemen's architectural heritage is unique in the Arabian Peninsula. My first encounter with the idea of Yemen was through an official visit to Baghdad by the North Yemeni president, Qadi Abdul Rahman al-Iryani (1910-1998) in 1971. The Italian ambassador was newly arrived from a posting in Sana'a' and his wife repeatedly told me that if I found the dusty remains of Iraq fascinating, then I should go post haste to Yemen before it was ruined by modernity Two years later I made it and for the following ten years was preoccupied with the country, first making short visits while studying for a BA in Near Eastern archaeology, excavating in Jordan every summer; after graduating I worked with the Yemeni Antiquities Department on a project financed by UK overseas aid. Fortunately, Yemen's traditions have persisted until the recent war, encouraged by foreign advisors: Italian; French; Dutch; German; US; Canadian; and British government agencies and institutions all provided the finance and man power to work alongside Yemeni nationals who proved to possess an intense national pride and a desire to retain their age-old techniques given the necessary incentives.