Description: The city of Sana'a is a living museum. Considered to be one of the oldest cities in the world (2,500+ years old), and Old Sana'a protected by UNESCO to prevent new buildings destroying the old, Sana'a is a place where you can spend hours, if not days, wandering the streets and feeling like you've stepped back in time. Life here has simply not changed enough to make you feel like it is the 21st century.
The most noticeable aspect of Old Sana'a is the architecture. The buildings are unlike anything else in the Western world, with brown exteriors with whitewashed details, stained glass, and no two buildings that look identical. Most of the buildings are tower houses, which are simply tall buildings with a central staircase that winds its way to the top. In ancient times, the bottom floor was reserved for the animals, while the upper floors were for the kitchen and families. In some cases, this still exists. To see detailed craftsmanship, look at the front doors of each building. Some are new, but many are old...very old, "modernized" by adding a padlock to them. With laws preventing the buildings from being destroyed, and from new buildings being built, the city is literally a living museum.
If you spend any amount of time in Old Sana'a, you are most likely going to get lost. The streets are a maze, narrow, unnamed, and simply confusing. But, getting lost is part of the allure if this ancient city. There are some main, wider streets through the city, which is where you'll find most tourists and the bigger markets. But, the smaller, less-used streets are where you'll find the most interesting parts of the city, such as where the people live. Some streets dead-end into nothing, some get so narrow that you have to walk sideways to pass them, some that seem barely wide enough for people are somehow used by cars, and some streets have small tunnels. The most fascinating aspect, though is that these streets have been used for centuries.
A large part of Old Sana'a is the souks, or markets. Residents and tourists can come here to buy almost anything, from jewelry to honey to spices. One section of the city is used for people making wooden doors and windows, whereas another section is simply the spice market (which feels straight out of ancient Arabia). Mixed in with the markets used by the locals are the shops selling souvenirs. You can find all the usual crap any tourist destination sells, along with some great antiques. I found the best time to go shopping was in the mid-afternoon when the men are high on qat. They seemed less aggressive and easier to barter with. The market also seems a heck of a lot quieter then.
Cities tend to be more modern and current than most other places in the region. Old Sana'a is the opposite. Everything is frozen in time as if it was still ancient Arabia. The people dress in traditional clothing, and their lives have gone unchanged for generations. Peek into buildings to see how the people live and work. You might stumble upon a man watching his camel connected to a wheel and stone so that when it walks in circles it chops grain into a powder, or maybe you'll see a man buy a live chicken, then bring it to a table and chop the head right off. Kids play soccer in the streets, barefoot. And women remain as mysterious as they are everywhere else in Yemen. Still, despite them living theirs lives as they always have, they welcome tourists with open arms and big smiles.
Like all of Yemen, Old Sana'a is a very traditional Muslim city. Mixed along with the tower houses and markets of the city are 50+ mosques, each with a towering minaret. Full calls to prayer are broadcasted across Sana'a at various times throughout the day, and night. Unless you're deaf, you will find the calls to prayer both beautiful (such as at sunset) and annoying (such as at 4am when you're trying to sleep).
Every city in the world has something about it that makes it memorable, but also has something that makes it feel like any other city. Old Sana'a is in a category by its own. Besides it being ancient, the architecture is one-of-a-kind, the streets can never be mastered (unlike New York's grid system), with every turn you'll discover something new and unique in the markets, the people look like they've taken a time machine from ancient Arabia, and the minarets punctuate the rest of the city by giving the city a sound you'll never hear anywhere else.
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