- Shibam in Yemen is an ancient, desert city.
- Originally settled 1,700 years ago, it's the world's first city of skyscrapers. Many of the buildings, built from mud bricks, date back to the 16th century.
- As Yemen struggles with a violent civil war between the government and Houthi rebels, Shibam's future is uncertain.
- The war has been going on for five years, resulting in 6,000 deaths and putting 22 million>$4 people in a position where they need assistance - for food, water, shelter, or sanitation.
- For Shibam, things have been tenuous since 2008. Flooding, terrorist attacks, the Arab Spring Revolt, and the civil war have all put pressure on the city.
- Shibam's tourism industry has died, and funding for maintaining buildings has been cut. Now $4 across the buildings.
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After surviving wars, floods, and a harsh climate for hundreds of years, Shibam, one of the world's most remarkable cities, could soon be in ruins.
Shibam is known as the "Manhattan of the desert," because it's made up of mud brick skyscrapers that shoot up in the middle of the Arabian peninsula's longest valley. It was dubbed that in the 1930s by Freya Stark, an English traveler.
In October 2019, $4 took a look at the cost Yemen's civil war is having on its ancient cities. Shibam is no longer getting funding to preserve its mud brick buildings, and faces threats from flooding, and potential airstrikes.
Almost all of the houses in the city have eroded, and cracks can be seen across the buildings, $4
Here's what the city is like.