Saturday, February 23, 2008

The Manhattan of the Desert





Continuing with the skyscraper theme, I thought it would be a good time to write a little post about a city named Shibam in the country of Yemen. (Shown above.) Known as the Manhattan of the Desert, the town features hundreds of mud brick "tower houses," which can reach up to nine stories tall.

Not impressed? Well consider this. Manhattan's first skyscraper (the famous Flatiron Building) was built in 1902. At the time, it was considered an architectural marvel. No one had seen anything like it before.

Except, perhaps for the people of Yemen. You see, the skyscrapers of Shibam were built FOUR HUNDRED years before the Flatiron Building.


10 comments:

Nina said...

That would be a good vacation spot :)

Elizabeth said...

Wow, that's amazing. It looks awesome (my sister says it looks pretty)

rage not sighned in said...

http://lookmind.com/illusions.php?id=1981&cat=1

Nellie said...

Coooool cooooool cooooool happy sunday

Kitty said...

SwEeT....

creativeartist said...

ccccc_oooo_ooooo_lllll_iiiii_ooooooo!

Anonymous said...

*gasp* WHOA. It's like, OLD SKYSCRAPERS!!!

PAtsee said...

That's pretty dang cool.

What happens when you sweep the floor of a house made of mud?

PAtsee said...

That's pretty dang cool.

What happens when you sweep the floor of a house made of mud?

falcon said...

cooolio...!