Old City of Sana'a: a World Heritage site in Yemen's capital
Background
Sana'a is the capital of Yemen, and its Old City is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The site stands in a mountain valley at an altitude of about 2,200 m.
Sana'a has been inhabited for more than 2,500 years and was given official status in the 2nd century BC as an outpost of the Yemenite kingdoms.
UNESCO inscribed the Old City in 1986 under cultural criteria (iv), (v) and (vi).
Its many-storeyed tower-houses are built of rammed earth (pisé), their facades decorated with geometric patterns of fired brick and white gypsum.
The English UNESCO description counts 103 mosques, 14 hammams and over 6,000 houses, all built before the 11th century.
Green gardens called bustans are scattered among the houses, mosques, baths and caravanserais.
The Great Mosque is described as the first mosque built outside Mecca and Medina, and the Old City has been on the List of World Heritage in Danger since 2015.
In plain words
Rammed earth — A building method in which damp earth is packed hard inside a mould to form a solid wall.
Hammam — A public bath house of the kind found in West Asian and North African cities.
Caravanserai — A walled inn where travelling merchants and their animals rested on a trade route.
Bustan — The local name for the green garden plots kept between the buildings of the old city.