Shaharah

Shaharah sits at around two thousand six hundred metres in the northern Yemeni highlands, and the way in crosses a stone arch bridge thrown across a gorge between two peaks, built in the seventeenth century and around twenty metres long with a drop beneath it that people cross carefully. The position made the village effectively unassailable and it held out through several sieges. Cisterns cut into the rock supplied it.

Background

Shaharah is the seat of Shaharah District and sits on the summit of Jabal Shaharah, a spur of Jabal al-Ahnum, which is why it is also called Shaharat al-Ra's. The mountain's slopes and top are widely farmed. The village has old stone houses, a cistern and three gates, named Bab al-Nasr, Bab al-Saraw and Bab al-Nahr. A local lord built the limestone footbridge to link two villages. To the east stands the old fortress of Shaharat al-Fish. The 10th-century writer al-Hamdani described Shaharah as both a mountain and a fortress. An amir, Dhu'l-Sharafayn Muhammad ibn Ja'far, made it his capital and was buried here.

Source: Wikipedia, "Shaharah"

What you'll find

• The arch bridge - the seventeenth-century stone span across the gorge.
• The gorge - the drop the bridge crosses between the two peaks.
• The village - the stone settlement on the mountain top.
• The cisterns - the rock-cut water storage that let it hold out.

When to go

October to April is the cool season. The track up is rough at any time. Nights at this altitude are cold.

Practical notes

The track up is genuinely rough and takes hours in four-wheel drive. The bridge is narrow with no railings. Access to mainland Yemen requires arrangements made well in advance.

Nearby

Amran is south, and Sana'a is southeast.

Key facts