by Katia Savchuk
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.
That’s how a medieval poet described the towering palace of Ghumdan in Yemen, built 1,800 years ago. While neighbors in the Middle East compete to build modern palaces of and steel, an article in today’s New York Times describes how Yemen has not only managed to preserve its architectural gems but to continue building the traditional way.
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.
That’s how a medieval poet described the towering palace of Ghumdan in Yemen, built 1,800 years ago. While neighbors in the Middle East compete to build modern palaces of and steel, an article in today’s New York Times describes how Yemen has not only managed to preserve its architectural gems but to continue building the traditional way.
