Manakha, Al-Hajjara and Al-Houdaib
A day trip to visit Manakha, Al-Hajjara and Al-Houdaib, all found in the Jebel Harraz region of Yemen. This is an area of fortress villages and terraced hillsides planted with coffee, millet and Qat. Traditionally home to the Ismailis who built their defensive towns in the high mountains, Manakha is the principal town of the region. Manakha is another town with steep, narrow street, stone forts and fortified stone houses and has often used as a starting point of treks to Shibam and Kawkaban.
Al-Hajjara (or Hajjarah), set at 6,500' dates back to the 12th century and is literally built into the mountain with no foundation. Now, I am 99% positive that all the following photographs are of Al Hajjarih...(bad me did a terrible job of not labeling some of the photos) View image...
... but it really doesn't matter. If you decide to visit Yemen, these sights are boilerplate and you'll know them when you see them. Wherever this place was is etched in my memory because:
We drove up and there were boys lined up selling trinkets and souvenirs. They would race up to you, grab your hand and try to charm you into visiting their little table or home.
As we browsed and then moved on in preparation for more sightseeing, they quickly packed up their tables...and ran with the tables on heads up the hill to get far enough ahead of us to display their souvenirs again...
We were talking some seriously steep inclines here and watching them run with tables on their heads was hysterically funny...
Al-Hajjara had to be a major highlight of Yemen. What a sight! Both from the bottom looking up , and the top looking down on roofs with corn drying. Incredible. Furthermore, as we were leaving the town, a tourist came running across the rocks shouting "Steve, Sheila." In all the places...in all the world...it was Deidre, our Explore guide in Syria and Petra leading an Explore group in Yemen. Dumbfounded is the only word to describe the looks on our faces!
Al Houdaib was another village in a spectacular landscape. One of our group (either Bill or Paul) was feeling seriously ill with a slight fever, but we were heading back to Sana'a for tonight and then Marib before beginning the most rigorous part of this Yemen trip. Hopefully, he'd feel better by then.
