The story of a young man named Omar secluded from the world and lives in a basement, isolated with all the windows closed, without anything linking him to the outside world. Only a basement full of things and a bed and an office.

Omar works in manufacturing bombs to an extremist terrorist group that claims it is fighting for what is right. He believes in this group and considers it is the only voice which is fighting for righteousness and freedom, but he realizes that everything he believed in was just ideas. That happens when he falls in love with a girl selling Allhouh (type of bread in Yemen) in the proximity of his home and realises that life has more to offer, he then gains a different perspective to life and also realises that everything he had fought for had no meaning now.

This is when Omar’s life changes, but then he is faced with the results of the terrorist’s acts when he knows that the girl that changed his life is sick with a heart condition that was caused by one his bombs and is destined to die. This is when Omar decides he must do something good before he dies as way to penance his previous bad deeds.

Source: 100 Dishes to Eat Now
By Sarah DiGregorio, Thu., Sep. 9 2010

Salta, a vegetable and lamb stew, is often called Yemen’s national dish. Atlantic Avenue’s venerable Yemen Cafe prepares a wonderfully hearty rendition, served in a screamingly hot cast iron pot, so that the salta within bubbles vigorously. It’s served with a giant, blistered flatbread that ably sponges up the broth.

That long-simmered broth is thickened with vegetables like potatoes, carrots, and okra, and flavored with fenugreek, which lends an appealingly bitter edge. Small chunks of lamb add heft and richness. Though the dish costs $9 at lunch and could feed two, it rises to $17 at dinnertime–and is still worth it.

In Yemen, there is a race against time to save the historic Old City of Sana’a from the forces of modernization.

The sprawling metropolis that is modern Sana’a is the bustling capital of Yemen. But it occupies a site that has been inhabited for more than 2,000 years, and it boasts a historic quarter as beautiful as any in the world.

The Old City is made up of some 8,000 buildings, including its distinctive multi-storey tower houses. Built of earth, they are adorned with painted white “filigree” motifs that look like icing sugar on fairytale gingerbread houses.

Most buildings are between 200 and 500 years old, but some are much older, such as the Great Mosque, said to have been constructed in the seventh century, while the Prophet Muhammad was still alive.

Declared a World Heritage Site in 1986, the Old City is now threatened by urban growth, modernization and the unavoidable realities of ageing.

Dr. Abdullah Zaid Ayssa is president of Yemen’s General Organization for the Preservation of Historic Cities, and he is tasked with restoring Sana’a's fading beauty.

“The Old City is really unique, with unique architecture and buildings,” he said.

“It is an old city, but it is alive, and we are planning to keep it alive without harming its architectural fabric and value.

“You have growing families, you have to think about expansion and how you deal with that. It’s very difficult — it’s a living city, it’s not a monument.”

It’s that need to preserve the Old City without turning it into a museum piece that provides Ayssa with his most difficult challenge.

UNESCO reports that new homes and public buildings have been constructed in gardens and green spaces, increasing the building density in the area. Fountains and wells have been abandoned and demolished, and incongruous water tanks and satellite dishes have begun to appear on traditional homes.

It also noted a widespread “soukization” of residential quarters, with the introduction of new retail areas at street level

“The ground floor [of homes] used to be used as a stable or for animals but some people are opening the ground floor as a shopping area,” said Ayssa. “And we are trying to control that and organize that.”

Efforts to preserve the Old City include increasing awareness of its fragility among the estimated 80,000 people who live there. That includes encouraging locals to use traditional materials when making alterations to their homes.

Many houses have collapsed after their shallow foundations were weakened by water seepage from pipes installed in recent decades.

“People understand and are very proud of their heritage but we have to convince them that the protection of the city is important,” said Ayssa.

“If they don’t realize that concept they won’t care about it when it comes to the reality and economics of daily life.

“It costs money to preserve the Old City. It is very expensive but the challenge is how to create an income from it. We need to create internal income for preservation of the city, not just rely on outside support.”

One way preservation and economics can go hand in hand is by encouraging tourism to the region. But ongoing concerns over security mean Sana’a has yet to attract visitors in the numbers its beauty merits.

The Yemeni government is working to improve the country’s reputation abroad, hiring foreign PR companies to help and recently launching a series of tourism projects to worth $1 billion to be rolled out over the next five years.

But if it can retain its historic splendor, the Old City could still be charming visitors for centuries to come.

Also known as ‘the manhattan of the desert’, shibam is said to be home to the world’s oldest, surviving skyscrapers.

although some have been refurbished considerably since being constructed from mud-brick the majority of the 500+ buildings date back around 500 years, an incredible feat considering the technology available at the time.

the current population is a surprisingly low 7’000 and each building requires constant maintenance to combat erosion.

unsurprisingly, inside the city there is virtually no traffic due to the extremely narrow alleyways.

Before entering Bab Al Yaman (The Gate of Yemen) restaurant, I couldn’t help but notice that the restaurant’s exterior looked very similar to many Mexican establishments that I have visited in the past. Its clay colored walls of red, blue and yellow with green diamonds across, were just enough to show personality without being overwhelming. Additionally, there is a side window, which adds a nice touch and looks into a noticeably clean kitchen.

Inside, the Yemeni restaurant, which is located on Ahmed Al-Attas Street, is clean and elegant without being pretentious. What impressed me the most was its décor. It has nice Yemeni touches that add character and make it memorable. The walls are decorated with various Yemeni artifacts and paintings along with two parallel lines of Arabic style lanterns hung across the ceiling. Even though a couple of the lanterns were not working, the restaurant is very well lit.

The seating area consists of wooden tables and chairs with nice cushions — similar to the Arabic style cushions that are normally placed on the floor — making for a functional combination of the old with the new. In my opinion, however, the flat-screen TVs and their sloppy wires really clash with the whole Yemeni ambiance of the restaurant. It would have been more appropriate to have some Yemeni or even Arabic music playing in the background — or even better, a musician playing a traditional instrument — instead of the soccer game that was on.

Our meal began with complimentary chicken soup. It’s an original move on their part in terms of complimentary starters; but, in the end, it is just chicken soup. The main courses came very quickly after the soup; so, the smart move was to ignore whatever remained from the soup and dive into the real food. We ordered the meat Fahsah, chicken Auqda and liver, which were all served in iron pots atop wooden holders and made for a very nice Yemeni touch. In addition, we had the Shrimp Maghash with side orders of rice, okra and cheesy bread.

The meat Fahsah and chicken Auqda were both delightful. The meat in both cases was very nicely shredded and of good quality. Personally, I am a big fan of shredded meats because they show that the cook took the extra time and care to prepare the dish. Too many times in the past, I would order an entree where the meat was supposedly shredded, only to find it served in small rectangular pieces. Both dishes were made with a nice array of spices along with the perfect amount of peppers, tomatoes and onions. The chef did an excellent job of making sure these truly enhanced the flavor of the meat rather than overwhelm it. Additionally, the juices of both dishes were amazing for dipping with bread, and I couldn’t help but think that the leftovers would make for excellent sandwiches.

The liver was very well made and was a great addition to the Yemeni feel of the meal, especially since I don’t usually order liver at restaurants. The shrimp was grilled and made with some sort of garlic sauce. Even though it was good, it did not really seem to significantly contribute to the consistent character of the other dishes. The okra was served with a tomato-based sauce and was delicious with both rice and bread. The rice was served with crispy onions and the occasional raisin, adding some flare to a generally mundane side. The cheesy bread, although lacking in cheese, was very similar to the Indian naan. It was truly fresh and delicious — perfect for use with all the main dishes and okra. We were also given a salsa dip and another dip made from a blend of yogurt and vegetables. The salsa, even though it was extremely spicy, tasted amazing, unlike the yogurt dip which was more on the bitter side.

The service was excellent and beyond reproach. We had two waiters who were both Egyptian and extremely friendly and understanding in helping us with what to order. Unfortunately, however, we didn’t get to meet the man with the magic hands — the Yemeni chef.

I am very happy that I took a chance on trying something new since Bab Al Yaman has the perfect amount of character to make it worthy of a second visit. If your exposure to Yemeni cuisine is limited, then Bab Al Yaman will be the perfect introduction.                        By SHARIF ISLAM, THECRITIC@JEDDAHFOOD.COM

Location:

Ahmed Al-Attas Street, Jeddah, KSA

For more information:

call 02-289-9090

The gallery is located on the 2nd floor of the National Handicrafts Training Center. This former samsarah (resting/storage house for merchants using the old incense trading routes) also houses a series of other shops selling silverware, woodwork, and semi-precious stones etc.

SANA, Yemen — It has been almost 800 years since Saleh Qaid Othaim’s house in the heart of the Old City was built from hand-cut stones and traditional alabaster decorations.

Yet on a recent morning, Mr. Othaim watched contentedly as a group of men renovated the place using exactly the same ancient methods and materials. Workers mixed the moist chocolate-brown masonry known as teen while a master builder supervised, a dagger hanging from his belt. There was no scaffolding, no helmets, no whine of machines: only the scraping of trowels and masonry, interrupted at last by the call to prayer in the high desert air.

“I don’t care how long it takes,” said Mr. Othaim, a government worker. “The most important thing is that it be done in a traditional way.”

The capital’s Old City is one of the world’s architectural gems, a thicket of unearthly medieval towers etched with white filigree and crowned with stained-glass windows. But more unusual than their mere survival is the fact that the traditional building arts continue to thrive here. Elsewhere in the Middle East, many older houses are being ripped down to make way for bland steel-and-glass high-rise buildings. The hyper-modern skyline of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with its mismatched skyscrapers looking as if they were hurled downat the Persian Gulf from outer space, is being emulated in Beirut and other cities.

Yemen is different. For all its many woes — wars, a water crisis and the rise of Al Qaeda — the country’s adherence to ancient traditions often makes it feel like a refuge. Even outside the Old City, the bands and crescents of medieval Yemeni architecture can be seen on many newer buildings and homes, along with the translucent alabaster windows known as gammariyas.

The traditions stayed alive largely because of Yemen’s deep poverty and long isolation. Until 1962, north Yemen had been ruled for almost a millennium by xenophobic imams who tried to shut out all foreign influence. The country largely missed the urban renewal phase of Arab history, in which kings and presidents cleared out ancient neighborhoods and markets in an effort to bring their nations into the modern age. By the early 1980s, when Yemen was still emerging from its medieval slumber, preservation was already in vogue.

There was much to preserve. This country has been famous for its unique architecture ever since Sabaean rulers built the skyscraper palace of Ghumdan 1,800 years ago, celebrated by one medieval poet thus:

It rises, climbing into the midst of the sky

twenty floors of no mean height

wound with a turban of white cloud

and girdled in alabaster.

Architects rediscovering the Old City soon found there was more than beauty at stake. The traditional houses were also more durable and effective than concrete-based modern houses, and better suited to the climate.

“The traditional houses have many environmental advantages,” said Abdulla Zaid Ayssa, the director of the government office that oversees all building and renovation in the Old City.

The traditional plaster, joss, does not erode stones over time the way cement does, Mr. Ayssa said, and is more durable. Qadad, a stone-based insulation material used in roofs and bathrooms, is much stronger than modern equivalents. The old stones and insulation techniques are calibrated to the sharp temperature shifts of night and day in Sana’s desert climate, so that the sun’s warmth fully penetrates a house’s walls only at day’s end, and is then retained through the night and no longer, Mr. Ayssa said. They are also much more soundproof and private than concrete.

“They experimented for hundreds of years to find these techniques,” Mr. Ayssa said. “By comparison, nowadays we are building houses with a very stupid concept.”

Yemen did not preserve everything. Only a few decades ago, there were 10 or 12 massive gates to the Old City; now only one remains. Some zealous republicans associated the older architecture with the reign of the imams, and thought it should be destroyed.

Still, Yemen kept far more than many other Arab countries did and, in 1986, Unesco, the United Nations culture agency, recognized the Old City as a World Heritage site, helping to secure money for its maintenance. Mr. Ayssa’s office helps subsidize the continued use of traditional materials and methods, which often cost more than modern ones.

To prevent the Old City from becoming a mere museum, the government built a modern sewerage system in the 1980s. It cobbled the ancient earthen streets, which had led one Italian writer to call the city a “Venice of dust.”

Now it is almost too crowded, and the authorities find themselves struggling to suit the city’s architecture to new ways of living. The ground floors that were once used for camels and goats have been largely refitted as stores. Those shops are undermining the central market, the social and cultural heart of the Old City. Still, local residents seem wedded to the traditional architecture and the ritualsthat go with it.

“Everything is changing in the city, but still, generation after generation, it continues,” said Mahmoud Qais al-Arousi, a 65-year-old builder, as he stood watching his workers mix masonry outside Mr. Othaim’s home. The building, he pointed out, still has scrape marks on its stone corners from where horse-drawn carriages would pass by. It was once inhabited by Nasser Salahuddin, a local notable who died 720 years ago.

With Mr. Arousi were his three sons, all of them apprentices to him. The building trade goes back hundreds of years in his family, he said, and his sons are planning to continue it.

“I learned by following every step my father made — the stones, the hizams,” Mr. Arousi said, referring to the distinctive horizontal belts running around Yemeni houses. “My sons are doing the same.”

By ROBERT F. WORTH (The New York Times)

Al-Saleh Mosque, the largest Mosque in Yemen, was named after President Ali Abdullah Saleh. It is located in al-Sabaeen district in Sana’a and built within an area of 222, 500 square meters. The Mosque includes a faculty of Islamic studies and Koranic sciences, vast courtyards, underground rest rooms, parking lots, and green areas. In conformity with the president’s directives, the designers maintained the traditional Yemeni architecture which gave the Mosque an incredible beauty and made it a magnificent attraction for citizens and Muslim residents in Sana’a.

Socotra Island: you have to see it to believe it

(Article by Rachel & Avi Abrams)

We covered some otherworldly places before (for example, Bolivian Salt Lake, or The Richat Structure), but this island simply blows away any notion about what is considered “normal” for a landscape on Earth.

Imagine waking up on the Socotra Island and taking a good look around you (let’s say your buddies pulled a prank on you and delivered you there, and lets also assume that you don’t have any hangover from abuse of any substances). After a yelp of disbelief, you’d be inclined to think you were transported to another planet – or traveled to another era of Earth’s history.

The second would be closer to the truth for this island, which is part of a group of 4 islands, has been geographically isolated from mainland Africa for the last 6 or 7 million years. Like the Galapagos Islands, this island is teeming with 700 extremely rare species of flora and fauna, a full 1/3 of which are endemic, i.e. found nowhere else on Earth.

The climate is harsh, hot and dry, and yet – the most amazing plant life thrives there. Situated in the Indian Ocean 250 km from Somalia and 340 km from Yemen, the wide sandy beaches rise to limestone plateaus full of caves (some 7 kilometers in length) and mountains up to 1525 meters high.

The name Socotra is derived from a Sanscrit name, meaning “The Island of Bliss”… Is it the beaches? The isolation and quiet? or the strange and crazy botanical allure?

Alien-looking plants: H. P. Lovecraft’s secret inspiration?

Was the famous Chtulhu myths creator aware of these forbidding mountains with their hauntingly weird flora (think of plant mutations from his “The Color out of Space”) ? We almost tempted to call Socotra the other “Mountains of Madness” – the trees and plants of this island were preserved thru the long geological isolation, some varieties being 20 million years old…

We begin with the dracena cinnibaris or Dragon’s Blood Tree, the source of valuable resin for varnishes, dyes, and “cure-all” medicine; also (predictably) used in medieval ritual magic and alchemy –

The branches spread out into the sky and from below appear to hover over the landscape like so many flying saucers… and from above they have a distinct mushroom look:

There is also the Desert Rose (adenium obesium) which looks like nothing so much as a blooming elephant leg:

Dorstenia gigas – apparently does not require any soil and sinks roots straight into the bare rock:

It also has a distinct personality and likes to smile for the camera; Somewhat similar to the weird Dorstenia gigas, is this “bucha” vegetable, found as far north as Croatia. I hope it’s not pregnant with anything malignant inside this sack. John Wyndham (with his “The Day of the Triffids”) would’ve loved it:

Also found in Socotra’s landscape is the ever-strange and extremely rare Cucumber Tree (dendrosicyos socotranum) – and yes, it’s related to what’s sitting in a pickle jar in your fridge:

Getting around can be a challenge, as there are almost no roads

Despite the fact that this island has around 40,000 inhabitants, the Yemeni government put in the first roads just 2 years ago – after negotiations with UNESCO, which has declared this island a World Natural Heritage Site. I would prefer a camel ride to what is bound to be a bumpy and slow 4×4 ride… It is a quiet and peaceful enclave in an otherwise troubled world. If you decide to visit there, you can forget about beachfront hotels and restaurants; this island is geared towards eco-tourism and sustaining the local economy and way of life.

This island is a birder’s paradise as well, with 140 different species of birds; 10 of which are not found anywhere else in the world. A unique Socotra warbler, sunbird, starling, bunting, sparrow and cisticola are among the ones found here. There are also Socotra Cormorants:

Want to see some fairy-tale (and possibly haunted) shipwrecks? There are diving tours available… Hopefully some IMAX crew would film it in all its glory one day.

To give you a glimpse of Socotra’s and Yemen’s in general totally unique architecture, check out this place located on the mainland:

Al Hajarah, Yemen – Walled city in the mist

Computer game designers take note – this mysterious city in the foggy Yemen’s Haraz Mountains can surely fire up imagination of anybody who decides to explore it:

Pack your bags, for this is on our good old planet Earth, no interstellar visa required.

Socotra Island: you have to see it to believe it