Imam Palace

During the 1930’s, Imam Yahya built a palace about 15 km northwest of Sana’a as a summer retreat. The site he chose was atop an enormous boulder which had been used by various groups for centuries for anything from shelter to burial sites. The palace itself has five stories of classic Yemeni architecture, and you can see it up close and in person for a small fee.



Before checking the place out up close, we stopped at a look-out point that gazes down into the valley. This more or less flat spot of ground abruptly ends with a shear drop of around 75 feet to a rocky red ledge, then fading off more gradually below into piles of dirt, rocks, and boulders ranging from the size of your hand to the size of your car. Honestly, the first thought that I had while looking into the valley was “home.” Dry hills and stone pillars, colored in browns and reds, surrounded a valley with plenty of green in the washes and drainage areas. While it isn’t as hot as the dry valleys of Arizona, the whole scene instantly reminded me of where I had been only several days before. (All of this amazing rock gave me the hankerin’ for some climbing!)



After taking our time observing from above, we drove down right underneath the Dar Al-Hajar, “the Palace of the Rock.” Sliding 500YR into a small window carved from the thick outer wall surrounding the palace gets you a ticket to pass through the giant wooden gate leading to a stone pathway which rounds the boulder and brings you to the lower entrances of the edifice.



The courtyard in front of the palace has many beautiful flowering plants (There is also an amazingly beautiful tree right out in front of the enclosure!). Water flows from stone fountains inside the rectangular stone swimming pool with a stellar view of the wadi (valley). If you wonder how this tiny oasis could have enough water for such extravagances, just take a look at the boulders surrounding the fortress. Short, man-made walls channel water flowing down the rock into a central location for collection. This area actually has more than one month of consistent rain each year, and the imam obviously made every arrangement possible to keep the well and the cisterns full.



Inside the palace, stair cases go every which way, leading to wells, kitchens, entertainment rooms, burial rooms, lookout positions, etc. The walls and ceilings are white-washed, and doors are made of a dark wood. The floors are inlaid with grey stone. Stained glass windows in every room display intricate Middle Eastern designs to match the “plaster molding” designs found in the corners of the ceilings in nearly every room. It’s easy to forget what floor you’re on at the moment, and coming around the corner from one set of stairs and an entertainment room filled with pillows and floor cushions could find you suddenly face to face with a fourth floor balcony overlooking the valley and with yet another set of stairs leading up or down.



While the palace itself dates to the 1930s, holes hewn into the rock for ancient burial chambers, and a well dated to 700 BC remind you that this valley has lived through thousands of years of history. Many different groups of people with various religious and cultural backgrounds have occupied this very spot of land for a very long time. This imam just happens to be one of the latest of those inhabitants.



Stone look-out towers litter the hills and boulders surrounding the palace, apparently to give the imam information on the approach of enemies as far in advance as possible.



From the higher levels of the palace, the neighboring mosque is in clear view. Heeding the call to prayer, men poured inside, each removing their shoes and placing them in a giant heap near the entrance. About 40 men prayed outside the mosque, perhaps because there was not enough room inside. I wondered if the imam, there until the 1960s, prayed in that same mosque or in one very near to this location.



While I had been in Yemen less than three hours I felt that I had already had several true Yemeni experiences and that I had multiplied my understanding of the Arab world several times over (having started at next to nil, this was no great accomplishment). But even seeing it first hand for a few hours gives you only so much perspective. Hopefully several months living in Yemen will further improve that understanding of the history and present circumstances of this very unique corner of the world. On to some food!



Here are some pics related to this post. Sorry I didnt get them into the post. While it is more likelyt that I am simply blog-illiterate, my current excuse is the slow internet connection I use to make these posts. Thanks: http://picasaweb.google.com/tystandage/ImamPalace#