An mountain land of beauty in deseparate desolated Ymen

Not all of Yemen has been destroyed.  The Huffington Post has a report, with remarkable photographs, of Yemen’s Jafariya district, where no bombs fall.

The great sand desert of Western Yemen is also mostly unscared by Saudi Arabian air strikes, though the are many unacknowledged United States done strikes on those thought to be enemies of the United States or of Saudi Arabia.  For one unforgiven drone strike on the edge of the desert,  see A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in Yemen | Newspaper Spoon.


Thanks, Rik, for the heads-up.

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WORLDPOST

Yemeni Villagers Build New Life High Above The Conflict Destroying Their Country

Up in the mountaintops, villagers are safe from the raging violence below.

 09/13/2016 04:10 pm ET

Jesselyn Cook World News Reporter, The Huffington Post  

ABDULJABBAR ZEYAD/REUTERS

Young boys sit on the roof of their home in the mountains of Yemen’s Jafariya district on May 31, 2016. Yemeni villagers have built an isolated community in the mountaintops, far beyond the conflict below.

High in the remote mountains of Yemen’s western Jafariya district, villagers remain safe from the vicious battle for power below that has pushed their country to “the edge of civil war.”

A year and a half ago, clashes erupted between forces loyal to President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and Yemen’s Houthi rebels, a Shiite militia that forced the embattled leader out of the nation’s capital in February 2015. A Saudi-led coalition of Gulf Arab states then launched an airstrike campaign against the Houthis.

The devastated country has also come under fire from so-called Islamic State militants, who killed 137 people in major suicide bombings targeting mosques in March of last year. 

The scale of civilian suffering in Yemen is immense. Millions have been displaced by the crisis, and thousands more have been wounded or killed. One year into the deadly conflict, UNICEF statistics revealed that children accounted for one-third of all civilian deaths.

Yemenis seeking refuge up in the mountaintops are far from the raging violence, but life in the isolated community is extremely challenging as many basic services are simply inaccessible. As Reuters reports, food is cooked over a fire, there is no electricity or running water, goods are imported uphill on foot and by cable cars, and medical specialists are hours away.

“Despite the difficulty of life, we’re still living here, just as our fathers and our ancestors did,” 65-year-old Mohammad Yahya Haidar told the news service. “We grow coffee and grain like they did, and we’ve grown accustomed to this life with all its cruelty and extreme hardship.”

Take a look at these extraordinary photos of Yemen’s mountaintop villagers.

ABDULJABBAR ZEYAD/Reuters

Boys swim in a pond in the mountains, in the Jafariya district of the western province of Raymah, Yemen, on June 2, 2016.

ABDULJABBAR ZEYAD/Reuters

A cable car carries supplies to Dhalamlam Mountain on May 20, 2016.

ABDULJABBAR ZEYAD/Reuters

A man rides a cable car that carries people and supplies to the mountaintop on May 31, 2016.

ABDULJABBAR ZEYAD/Reuters

A woman walks along an uphill path in the region on June 2, 2016.

ABDULJABBAR ZEYAD/Reuters

A girl sits on the roof of her house on June 1, 2016.

ABDULJABBAR ZEYAD/Reuters

A girl plays on a swing near her house in the mountains on June 3, 2016.

ABDULJABBAR ZEYAD/Reuters

A cable car operator uses a vehicle engine to run the cable car on May 20, 2016.

ABDULJABBAR ZEYAD/Reuters

Houses are pictured in the mountains on May 20, 2016.

ABDULJABBAR ZEYAD/Reuters

A man and a child walk along a path on May 20, 2016.

ABDULJABBAR ZEYAD/Reuters

Workers build a house in the mountains on June 2, 2016.

ABDULJABBAR ZEYAD/Reuters

A beekeeper checks his beehives in the mountains on May 21, 2016.

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The XX District is in the Eastern Mountains of Yemen.  In the West lies the largest sand setin the old, and in i is one of the world's most astonishing attcitctural amchivenmltents:

• ArchDaily
• News
• y

The 'Manhattan of the Desert': Shibam, Yemen's Ancient Skyscraper City

• 09:30 - 2 August, 2015
 
• by Finn MacLeod

© 

Walking through narrow chaotic alleys dwarfed by soaring towers, few would estimate the age of Yemen's city of Shibam at nearly 1,700 years. Located in Yemen's central Hadhramaut district, Shibam has roots in the pre-Islamic period, and evidence of construction dating from the 9th century.

Shibam is known as the first city on earth with a vertical masterplan. A protected UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1982, the city is home to densely packed buildings ranging from four to eight storeys, beginning in 300 AD but now mostly built after 1532. Thanks to a fortified ring wall, the city has survived nearly two thousand years despite its precarious position adjacent to the wadi floodplain. 

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Shibam Hadhramaut is also called the "the Manhattan of the desert", and is one of the oldest and best examples of urban planning based on the principle of vertical construction. — javarman / Shutterstock.com

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For a brief history of  Shibin see  Shibam - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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The sand desert of Western Yemen, largest in he work and some f its inhabitants

Rub al Khali 002 - Rub' al Khali - Wikipedia

From Worldrecordtour, Asia, Middle East, Yemen, Sana'a, Aden, Mukhalla, Hadramawt, Picture, Guinness Book of World Records, Toyota, LandCruiser, Emil Schmid, Liliana Schmid