Yemen - Oman, UAE and Arabian Peninsula - page 760

Sights & Activities
The dazzling whitewashed, low-rise town is a shy place and keeps most of its best fea-
tures tucked away out of view. Without a bit of local help, a visitor will probably leave
with staid impressions, having seen little but a series of plain exterior walls. Fortunately,
help is at hand in the form of a friendly and generous local population. Walk the swelter-
ing streets and an invitation for tea in somebody's house is almost a given. As soon as this
happens, the hidden world of Zabid opens up before you. Plain on the exterior, the interior
of the walls, which face onto small courtyards, are nothing short of carved and sculpted
works of art in a hundred different patterns and geometrical
designs.
Built around the central souqs, the residential areas of the city were originally divided
into different quarters for the different professional classes - merchants, artisans, dignitar-
ies and scholars. The city retains some of its low defensive wall (at the peak of its glory
Zabid had four concentric walls) and also some of the original gates, including Bab as-Siham
, Bab ash-Shabariq and Bab an-Nakhl . Various ornate buildings, such as the Nasr Palace , testify
to the town's former prestige and wealth.
Zabid boasts 86 mosques and madrassas (a considerable decline from the 230 it's once
supposed to have had), including the Al-Asha'ir Mosque , which was built during Mo-
hammed's lifetime in AD 629, and the Al-Jami'a Mosque (Friday Mosque), which dates to the
16th century. Look out, also, for the white, 13th-century Al - IskandarMosque OFFLINE MAP
GOOGLE MAP in the citadel on the edge of town. Unusually in Yemen, it's often possible
for non-Muslims to quietly enter some of the mosques with a guide.
Formerly the citadel's granary, the restored Zabid Granary Museum ( sunrise-sunset) now
serves to 'explain the history of Zabid' and exhibits the finds of the archaeological mis-
sion working here since 1983. The six sections are themed (mainly historically) and con-
tain a wide range of artefacts, from cannon balls and fragments of fine pottery to Ottoman
pipes and lovely Islamic woodcarvings. At the time of writing, we had no information on
whether or not the museum was still open.
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Al-Makha
04
Ask most people what mocha means and they'll instantly reply 'coffee' or 'Starbucks'. So
it's somewhat ironic that Al-Makha, the original coffee port, is one of the few towns on