The Sultan's Palace Museum and other Say'un, Yemen Things to Do Tips

The Sultan's Palace belonged to a Sultan of the Al Kathiri family, who ruled Hadramaut from here between 1516 and 1967. The palace was built in 1873, restored in 1926 and has been a museum since 1985.
It is the largest mud brick building in the Hadramaut
Exhibits range from Stone Age to the mid Islamic period. The tablets inscribed with the Southern Arabian language date from 8th century BC.
The second floor contains a collection of photographs taken in the 1930’s by Freya Stark.
The 3rd Floor has traditional arts and crafts, and there are views across the town from the top floor.

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Traditional mud bricks are used for building throughout the Hadramaut. I have also seen them in Southern Algeria, Mali and Sudan but the bricks in the Hadramaut are thinner but larger than anywhere else I have seen them - less brick shaped. This may be due to the type of mud available?
The mud is mixed with grass and put in a metal frame to shape the brick, then it is dried in the sun for 7 days.
A house is built in one layer at a time and this is left to dry before the next layer is put on. The bricks are laid flat so the walls of the house are very thick. But the bricks are not very thick so the process is very time consuming and it takes many bricks to build a house.
When the walls are completed they are coated with a layer of mud to act as plaster.
Mud brick, as you would expect needs repairing every year and after the rains.
We were lucky enough to pass some men making mud bricks just out of Shibam on the way to Tarim, so stopped to watch.

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The Hadramaut area is famous for it's honey. You will see shops selling it in Shibam and along the roadside. It is said to be some of the best honey you can buy - I can't vouch for that claim as I'm allergic to honey but my friends who tried it were impressed.
It is not just sold to the tourists - the local people are very keen on their honey and use it in many dishes.
We saw these Beehives in between Say'un and Tarim.

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Limestone is used to plaster walls, and around the windows and doors, often in decorative patterns. It is more expensive than mud bricks, as it is more labour intensive to make so only wealthy people use Limestone as plaster. You can see it in Hadramaut used as plaster on the Sultan's Palace in Say'un and in many towns across Yemen used as window surround decoration.
It is quarried from the mountains and baked in a huge kiln until it reduces to soft lumps, then ground into fine powder.
We passed this limestone kiln on the road between Say'un and Tarim.

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