Arab countries are preparing an application to include ancient residential clay buildings of the region, primarily in Yemen, on the UNESCO World Heritage List, Hussein Aidarous, the head of Hadramaut office of the Yemeni Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums, told Sputnik
SEIYUN/DOHA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd December, 2021) Arab countries are preparing an application to include ancient residential clay buildings of the region, primarily in Yemen, on the UNESCO World Heritage List, Hussein Aidarous, the head of Hadramaut office of the Yemeni Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums, told Sputnik.
Hadramaut is a province in the east of Yemen abundant with ancient clay palaces. It also includes the ancient town of Shibam with clay skyscrapers, which is already listed with UNESCO World Heritage.
"Negotiations are underway to include the entire city of Seiyun, the capital of the lowland part of Hadramaut province, in this list. At the moment, Arab countries have taken a joint initiative to propose clay residential buildings traditional for the region to be included on the UNESCO World Heritage List, and Yemen will play a major role in this initiative, presenting clay palaces and mansions of the 19th century nobility in the town of Tarim in the east of the country as an example of such architecture," Aidarous said.
The initiative was launched by Tunisia and Morocco and the application will be submitted soon, he added.
The war in Yemen has not affected Shibam and only two buildings have collapsed over the past decade, Aidarous said. However, he called on the authorities to step up efforts to protect the ancient city from destruction caused by natural causes, such as mudslides that occur due to increasingly more rains.
