Sanaa - Voices From The City

Sanaa, the capital of the Republic of Yemen, is an oasis amidst the rugged Sarat Mountains along the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. For centuries the isolated home of Yemeni imams, this ancient city has been reborn. It has reinvented itself to respond to developments, and has grown into modern metropolis. As syntheses of dreams it is a bustling oasis in the flow of life events. Sanaa lies spread at the foot of Jebel Nugum which may have been a dominant influence on the original choice of the site of the settlement. The capitals parameter is continually expanding outwards. Sanaa is now a developing expanding city which retains its unique and intriguing blend of old and new.

Nestled on a fertile plateau at an altitude of 2.400 m the city has a perfect climate – long summers of warm, sunny days and cool, clear evenings, and mild winters with brisk nights. Over many generations the farmers of Sanaa have carefully terraced the surface of the plain for cultivation wherever terrain and soils permit. All around Sanaa as far as the eye could see, were ranges of hills ornamented with countless houses in brick and stone. Plain is brown, the mountains blue and foothills tawny and purple. Plain and hills here seemed to be capable of a hundred shades, and changing light slip over the face of the land. The light seems a living being, always austere, always grand, never sentimental. The light and the space, and the color that sweep in ways of brown color of the earth, reflecting the color of age. Despite little rainfalls, the fields surrounding Sanaa are green with apricot trees, almond and walnut groves. It is spring and the near bye valleys are full of apricot blossoms. The rains were carrying now cloudy night skies, and other gifts the wind had given it. Like fine rain from a thick cloud. In a while the rains slowered to a drizzle and then stopped. The breeze shock water from the trees in the near bye Wadi Dahr valley, and Hadda village, and for a while it rained only under trees.

The oldest living city in Yemen, Sanaa has existed since at least 540 A.D. In the years before Islam, it was already the home of kings, who dwelt in the towering Ghamdan Palace. Caravans of spices, incense and balsam journeyed northward from its samsaras, returning to fill the bustling markets with silk, indigo, brass and silver.

An account from eighteenth century describes

"Pillared temples and sumptuous palaces where court from silk dais and domed pavilions, and where gushing fountains watered fruit and flower gardens of every variety".

Luring travelers across the forbidding mountains and unrelenting deserts of Yemen, the remote, mystical city of Sanaa, was eulogized the "Pearl of Arabia". Yet in sharp contrast to modernization, the city of Sanaa retains an un-spoiled charm, created by a unique architectural design and a way of life. Its inhabitants dwell in atmosphere of mosques, minarets, palaces, ancient walls and bazaars side by side with most recent technological achievements.

For many centuries, the city of Sanaa was within a walled area which now lies in the eastern sector of the modern capital. Today the city has by far outgrown these walls but, the pulse of social and commercial activity still throbs vibrantly in the Old Town. The tide of inhabitants is swelled by a constant flow of tribesmen from outlying villages, shoppers from the western sector of the city, and tourist both local and foreign. They come to shop, exchange news and information, or simply to experience the beat of Sanaani life.

The summer sunset pours soft apricot light on the walls and rooftops of what is probably the world oldest continuously inhabited city. Viewed from the cool heights, there is nothing remarkable about the streets of Sanaa. The slide through or dwindle into alleyways of the ancient quarter. It is when you descent from the hilltop and begin to walk the streets and alleys of the ancient Sanaani capital, that they reveal themselves as an ever changing people stage upon which the city displays its unique character. On busy avenues and quiet shaded lanes, Sanaa buys and sells, boils and plays, celebrates life and morns it's passing. And with each season come changes in the colors, moods and rhythm of the city's streets. It is here, in the labyrinth of markets, houses, samsaras and mosques, threaded by a network of narrow lanes and open squares, that the contrasts of different areas are most dramatic.

The approach to the Old Town along Zubairi Street, is one of the most attractive sights in Sanaa. The mud brick walls, built to keep tribal marauder from a medieval trading town, and now stretches around a dense, bustling metropolitan quarter. Above it rises an enchanting medley of brown, multi-stored building, the plaster tracery on their facades giving them an appearance of fantasy "gingerbread" houses. Crowded together over centuries of reconstruction and expansion, their walls and rooftops rise in amiable irregularity to form meandering staircases in the sky. The white-trimmed, mud brick houses characterize Sanaani architecture. Yemen is famous for its architecture, and the houses of Sanaa are imposing monuments to the cities unique expression of traditional Yemeni design, and life style which endured over centuries.
At the end of Zubairi Street is Bab Al-Yemen, the only remaining gate of the original five into the Old Town. A two way- stream of pedestrians, automobiles, motorbikes and donkey carts pours through the wide stone arch, and its two large wooden doors, closed and barred at sunset each evening during the reign of the imams, are now open days and night.

The smell of it, the feel of it:
The Old Town is as much abuzz now as it was a quarter century ago. It smells of spices and orange blossoms, roasting coffee, lamb kebabs, and fragrances of balm and herb spices, which are an integral part of Yemeni cuisine, takes on every form, color and tastes. Never before I did set foot in a city, never observed the swarming activity of the alley ways, never felt that powerful breath on my face, like the wind from the sea heavy with cries and smells. The Old City rises early each morning with more bustle, more color, more voice. The suq, or market, begins just inside Bab Al-Yemen, where traveling salesman auctions coats and jackets and boys push wheelbarrows piled high with striped futahs and brass incense burners. Fruit and vegetables are also sold here

breads, onions, potatos, tomatos and water melons.
jasmin and incense. Raisens with the color of henna.
papayas and mangos from the Tihama.
melons from Sadah, Oranges from Marib.
rose water in bottles. Grapes and dates.
almonds and nuts.

From green geometric terraces and valleys. The streets soon fork and narrow into Suq-al-Milh, where shops selling similar items are clustered together in quarters. The local residents admire colorful displays of Persian carpets, mafraj mattresses, and fabrics from the Tihama with pattern of earth and the sun, metal suitcases from India. Spice and grain merchants dip wheat, sorghum and lentils form woolen sacks, coffee beans and husks from leather bags, and garlic bulbs, chilies, and peppercorn from basket trays. Customers buy quantities of cumin, ginger, cardamon, or plastic bags of raisins, fresh dates, almonds and nuts. Rock salt from the coastal area of Salif or the mines near Marib is sold in two-kilo sacks made of plaited palm leaves. From their booths lined with old apothecary cabinets vendors casually produce amber – colored myrrh and brown frankincense, the famous resins of Arabia Felix, crystals of white musk and tinny vials of thick, brown ambergris, which lend their distinctive odors to countless perfumes.

Interspersed among the single-level stalls and workshops of the market areas are several multi-stored samsaras, or caravanserais. Most of these samsaras are very old, one dates from the fourteenth century, and are remnants of the days when caravans of myrrh, frankincense, and spices passed through Sanaa on their way to the Mediterranean. Passing through the swarming alleys, followed by imposing caravans, loaded with all sorts of merchandise. In Sanaa the goods were weighed and inspected and the tax paid. Merchandise destined for the City was also lodged in the samsarahs.

It was here that Heavens poured countless riches. Today caravans come no more. Samsaras were turned into art and craft centers. But smells like music hold memories. To think thoughts and not voice them. Long after the houses and palaces and ourselves have disappeared.

A faint smell of incense floats all around. Away from the market of shops and samsaras, overlooking wider lanes and open squares, are brown mud-brick tower houses of the Old Town. Scattered among the streets and houses, an integral part of life in the Old Town are over forty mosques, the place of prayer, meeting, and mediation. Many of the mosques in the Old Town are simple, walled structures with an open courtyard. Around these are large prayer galleries with flat roofs. The most impressive mosque in the Old Town is al-Jama al-Kbir, the Great mosque. Its wooden ceilings are carved with floral patterns and inscribed with Quranic v erses. The perfume vendors in front of the Great mosque dispense a hundred scents, some as ancient as the trade routes from the East, others as modern of yesterday Paris fashion. Always below street level, are small green oases in a city devoid of any free- growing shrubs and flowers. In the Old Town are at least fifteen Turkish bath houses, their low roofs topped by numerous small domes.

Further at the Tahrir square, whereold and new Sanaa meet, the street offers photocopying and photography services. The best place for open air photography is Tahrir square. The place is awash with tourist, local and foreign. Both have their picture taken. With plastic roses behind. The sidewalks around Tahrir are thick with good and services. Street side stands are selling fresh squeezed juices. The fruit of the season serves as its own advertisement.

Oranges, pomegrates, bananas, grapes, guafas, melons, mangos.
The smell of jasmine and incense, a longing for past and its purity.

Spring brings warmth back to the city. The skies become clouded and the nights cooler. Expectations of rain, sun and flowers. Flowers real or plastic are for weddings, for parties, for funerals, for love and hope, for sadness and regret. A procession winds slowly toward the cemetery through the streets of the old city.

past branches filled with apricots.
passed houses leaning upon each other.

It is a great city – our fathers have told us that existed of old – a city of rich and treasure. Sanaa has lived a thousand years and is yet to be born.