Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Pictures of Thula




In 2007 I worked in Yemen, a ruggedly beautiful country, and one of the few places left in the world where you actually feel you are going back in time to the Middle Ages and can see scenes straight out of the Tales of the Arabian Nights.


One of my favourite places there was the fortified town of Thula in the Haraz Mountains, where there is some magnificent, traditional architecture. Thula is an ancient city, named after Thula bin Lubakha Al-Hemiari, who lived here two thousand years ago.


There is a fortress on top of Al-Ghurab Mountain and a wall around the city, so you will enter it through one of the seven city gates. Its strong fortifications enabled it to repel the invading Ottoman Turks for more than three centuries. The houses of Thula are mostly 5 to 7 storeys high and have beautiful carved exteriors and colourful windows, known as qamereya

14 comments:

  1. These are amazing. Thanks for sharing them!

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  2. Thank you for your nice comment :)

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  3. En français dans le texte ;) De belles, en plus des beaux textes précédents !

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  4. These are beautiful pictures! It makes me want to visit, I love the middle ages!

    Kate
    Hodge Podge Blog

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  5. Merci. Tu es très aimable. Ton comment me flatte.

    And, thank you, you are very kind.

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  6. you have good article. keep it up

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  7. The picture are great. I feel like I'm there. The architecture is so stimulating, I'm from the Midwest and have never traveled abroad. But i love the people. Great eye, nice post.

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  8. You have a very interesting blog. i'm following you now.

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  9. Nice blog. I'm impressed that you are living my dream - traveling and working abroad. How do you do it?

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  10. Your articles and pictures are very interested. You are lucky one who has a very good chance in travelling around the world.

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  11. nice pics
    were you there long enough to interact with the locals? Because of the Cole bombing some westerners view it as a radical place.

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  12. Nice Photos Ian..
    Thank's for your comment on my blog and YES, it is distracting all the links in there..
    All that is for the Google robot ..
    Thank you and comeback
    Take care.
    Luiz Rampelotto.

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  13. Those are great pictures. I would like to hear some more and see more pictures of Thula. Very interesting.
    http://www.margsanimals.com/blogs/index.php/reviews/

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