Shibam, a walled city in the Wadi Hadramaut of eastern Yemen, is called the Manhattan of the desert: about 7,000 residents live in roughly 500 mud brick tower blocks of 5 to 11 stories, the tallest over 98 feet. Walls several feet thick at the base taper as they rise, and date palm beams tie the floors together. The towers were packed tightly inside a fortified wall as a defense against Bedouin raids, turning the streets into a shadowed maze where attackers could be hit from above, while the cluster also shields each tower from wind. The first known inscriptions naming Shibam date to the 3rd century CE, and around 300 AD it became capital of the Kingdom of Hadramaut after the destruction of Shabwa, growing rich on the frankincense and myrrh caravan trade.

Although the city has been inhabited for 1,700 years, most standing towers date to a rebuilding around 1533, because mud brick must be constantly replastered with mud and ash to survive. The city sits over six meters above the plain, possibly on a rock spur or on centuries of compacted collapsed buildings. A 2008 tropical cyclone flooded the valley and brought down several historic buildings as the bases soaked up water. In 2009 an al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula suicide bomber killed four South Korean tourists and a Yemeni guide, and the civil war has brought a nearby car bomb and coalition bombing. UNESCO listed Shibam as endangered in 2015.

• An ancient quarry called Juja supplied large squared building stones
• An Assyrian-style bronze lion’s head found nearby points to trade links with Mesopotamia
• Capillary action wicks floodwater up into the mud walls until the base gives way under the stories above
• Blast shockwaves crack the rigid mud facades even without a direct hit
• Shibam’s towers were recreated as a pavilion at Dubai’s Global Village